Crushing Blows
by Krelix
Summary: A man well suited to being a shinobi is reincarnated into the Naruto world at a key stage in its history, not knowing what is to come how will his actions inadvertently effect the future. OC-insert
1. Chapter 1

AN: I haven't written anything longer than a whatsapp message in years so don't expect too much, I wrote this mainly as part of a wager with myself so whilst I will be continuing it updates may not come quickly and whilst you are free to review I don't know whether I'll be reading them.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

* * *

Hiroyuki had lived a long life, there were scarce few that could say it hadn't been a fulfilling one. Born into the 20th Century just as it begun, from the beginning he had distinguished himself from others his age in subjects ranging from botany to science, though what really interested Hiroyuki was combat which he approached with a diligence you could scarce imagine. He had became one of the foremost practitioners of a fighting style endemic to the province in which he was born by his mid teens, at which point he travelled for a time learning from other masters other ways of fighting, some grappled, some fought from distance with weapons, he learned ways of winning battles that did not even enter physicality but took place entirely within the mind, winning a fight before it had even begun. After a time he returned to the village of his birth and set about creating his own dojo where he took students who flourished under his care. In the fullness of time he had married, begotten children whom he adored and grew old as the world around him changed, wars came and passed though they never touched the island of his home, technology moved on and time had come to make a stranger of him to the world he was born into.

In his later years Hiroyuki left more and more of his teaching to those few students who had stayed long enough to become journeymen of his style, these were few enough that they could be counted on one hand. The world changing as it was more young adults sought to leave their homes and take up new residence in the larger cities, promises of higher paying jobs and better opportunities proved to be too great of an attraction for many. Those who stayed became a kind of second family to Hiroyuki, welcome in his home for meals anytime they also grew attached to his children and especially Kon, Hiroyuki's eldest, to whom the dojo was to eventually pass to.

It was in Hiroyuki's 94th year that his wife passed, following this he removed himself from teaching entirely, passing the dojo on to Kon and remaining only to offer advice where he could. He remained unerringly sprightly even in his old age, long past his 100th birthday he completed his daily katas and cared for his garden. He began to spend more time with his grandchildren and great grandchildren and spent much of the remains of the day meditating. Believing he had long outlived his era he strove to only interact passively with the world as it was as it was no longer his to change, this he thought should be left to later generations, many things he didn't understand but he tried to understand the values of his remaining family, eventually his longevity became something of an inside joke to his family, some joked that he would outlive all of them. Of course he could not and on an ordinary day much like any other Hiroyuki's time came.

* * *

Hiroyuki sighed into the november air as he stepped out of his house, he had just finished a new project, his hands could not pick many things up these days but he had taken up wood carving and found that as clumsy as his hands had become there remained some nimbleness to them he had long thought foreign in his age. Stepping onto his porch he sat on the tatami mat admiring the forest and in the distance the lazy scimitars of the setting sun against the ocean as the day drew to a close. He inhaled, closed his eyes and began to meditate.

He awoke slowly, his eyes seemed resistant, unwilling to open but eventually acquiesced allowing him to give form to the murmurings surrounding him. He saw he was at home, in his bed, his family were there, the younger ones in the next room judging by the noise. Kon was the first to see he had awoken, he walked around his bed and sat by his side, the man he was speaking to made some quiet apology and left sliding the door closed behind him, the rest of Hiroyuki's family stood at the foot of his bed now as aware as Kon was of his alertness. Hiroyuki attempted a smile, he knew whatever news they had would not be very promising for his future health, he could feel it in the way his right arm wouldn't obey his commands, in the way his legs seemed almost locked in place, in the weariness that plagued his mind.

"You had a stroke" Kon murmured to him, answering his unbidden question.

Hiroyuki glanced at Kon and then laughed gruffly, finding he could still talk he said "If that were all I feel I might recover but the doctor did not look optimistic, what else is there?"

Kon waited several moments, glanced at his family and continued "The stroke has caused your brain to swell, the doctor had another word for it but as a result he believes another stroke could be on the way… a fatal one"

Hiroyuki nodded to himself, he had expected something of the sort, he suddenly found himself very tired, he turned his head to Kon to let him know when he saw shock in Kon's eyes, his family seemed to panic as well and one of them threw open the door shouting a name Hiroyuki didn't recognise. It was the last thing he ever heard, his eyes remained staring at his son, but the life that had resided there fled as a rivulet of blood seeped from the outer edges of both of his eyes. At 124 years of Age, Hiroyuki died at home surrounded by his family, his final work, a small wood carving of an owl, lay on the table beside his bed.

* * *

Hiroyuki felt as though he slipped from sight and sound to become a mere consciousness, simply existing. He was unsure how long he spent in that state, it seemed like a moment but he had a feeling it was much longer and that he just wasn't aware of the time he had spent in that state. Eventually he became aware that he was… aware. He looked around and found he was in a dimly lit grey corridor with an almost blinding pinprick of light in the distance. The light could have been blotted out behind a strand of hair but it was still difficult to look at such was its brilliance. Hiroyuki surmised that the light must have been what lit the entire corridor as he could see no other light source, he thought to look behind himself but some deep instinct urged him not to, the corridor reminded him of the hallways in some buildings where it could seem like you were not making any progress due to the length of the space, there had been such a place in his home village, the school had stretched along the coast with all of the classrooms on one side and one hallway to navigate between them, he took a step forward and realised this corridor reminded him of something, it reminded him of those long corridors you came across in buildings sometimes, a world away he remembered encountering such places in hotels when he travelled as a younger man, it was in the lobby of one of these hotels he had met the first master he had trained under after leaving his home. Hiroyuki laughed to himself, he remembered how young and naive he had been, Gofu had proven to be an extremely particular teacher and had beaten that out of him very early on, he took a step forward and found that this space actually reminded him of long corridors you came across in buildings sometimes, places like hotels, he remembered the first hotel he had stayed in when he was younger he had met… Hiroyuki suddenly realised with shock he couldn't remember, part of the reason he had performed so well academically was due to his faultless memory, he could remember almost every detail of his life from the age of 5 and they shone as true in his memory now as they did moments after he lived them, examining his memory of his stay in the hotel now he realised he had a hole in his memories where entire days seemed to fall away to… nothing.

Hiroyuki panicked, there were few things he valued as much as his mind and he realised something was happening to tamper with it but what could it be and how much had he already forgotten? He analysed his memories more carefully and realised he could no longer remember where he had gone to school, he could remember his teachers, the results he received in tests and his friends but when trying to conjure an image of the school in his mind it was just… blank. Thinking on this Hiroyuki examined the corridor again, remembering how he had remarked how the corridor reminded him of similar places in large buildings where it might seem as though you weren't moving and realised that his school must have been a large building since every child on his island was expected to attend. Thinking on this Hiroyuki came to the conclusion that the memories being tampered with must be one's thought of at specific times within this place, after all the second instance of his lacking memory began at a hotel where he clearly remembered such a phenomenon. Hiroyuki resolved to think of nothing, emptying his mind as he often did when he meditated he looked ahead and took a step. Analysing his memories he found that no further alterations had been made to his memories of the hotel when he was younger and for a happy moment thought he had found a way to trick whatever mechanism was causing his memory loss. He then realised he was mistaken, to his horror he realised there was a blank space in his memories in much of his life after his return to his home, he could remember his entire family but there was a ragged hole like a wound that spread through much of his adult life and he came to the horrifying conclusion that he could no longer remember his wife. Hiroyuki knew he must have had one since he could remember preparing for his wedding when he was younger but in the tapestry of his memory there were ragged holes surrounding almost everything after he returned from his travels. Hiroyuki knew then that if he didn't think of a subject before taking a step this place would simply remove the largest parts of him that still existed, memories of this place seemed to be immune and he knew he could not stay still forever so he stood still for a while and considered what he could do.

Eventually Hiroyuki decided to step forward but from now on only concentrate on the smallest memories from his youth beginning with the ones he would rather forget. The sensation of breaking his arm when he fell out of a tree, the feeling of drowning when he was tossed from a boat and he had not yet learned to swim. Hiroyuki stepped onwards with the measure of a man who has seen his task and set his will against it.

Some indeterminable time later Hiroyuki realised the light was getting closer. He had given fully 8 decades of his life to this place and he desired to be free of it, with renewed hope Hiroyuki stepped onward.

At long last Hiroyuki reached the light, it was in the form of a doorway, too blinding to look at Hiroyuki found he had to shield his eyes against it. He had given 10 decades of his life to get this far and surrendered far more, the feeling of the sun on his face, many of the hobbies he had taken up. All that remained were the memories of the time he spent with his family, the katas he performed daily, a large amount of his education and the overarching principles of his training. Wearily he stepped through the doorway of light.

* * *

I regained my self awareness at the age of around 3, I quickly realised I must have been reincarnated, this place did not seem like any afterlife I had ever heard of. I remembered dying. Memories of a family I left behind, confident as I was in them being able to forge their way without me I still mourned them as they likely mourned me. I realised quickly there was something wrong with my memory, had I merely been missing older memories I could have forgiven the omission but I was missing everything prior to a certain point around 20 years before my death, realising it was impossible to discern the cause, whether some age related illness in my old life or some kind of tribute necessary to pay after passing on, I chose to accept this and moved on. My memories from this body, murky as they were prior to my reawakening, painted the picture of a world with technological capabilities far outstripped by what I remembered from my old life.

My first task was to learn who I was now, this proved simple enough, the Matron of the orphanage was a strict woman who didn't appreciate being ignored so when I did not respond to the first 2 calls of Keiko I quickly found myself cleaning the dining hall of the orphanage after lunch. Keiko. I liked it. It felt good to have a new name to go with my new life. That evening I sat on my futon in the common room I shared with the other orphans and, as had become habit in my old life, began to meditate, it was then I realised that there was something different about this body. There was something… suffusing it, something that rolled through me like a steady current. In my minds eye it was like a beacon, I observed it for a time, like a still deep pool it seemed to offer no insight as to what lay within but rippled with every thought and emotion. I decided to reach in and test the depths, I opened my eyes in shock as I felt something akin to a huge adrenaline rush course through my muscles, I gazed at my hands as a faint blue mist coated them and then I passed out.

I awoke the next morning tired, but not a tired I had been before, somewhere between a deep bone weariness and the debilitating tiredness that came with illness, unable to find any actual physical symptoms I decided to push through the day and made my way to the shared bathroom. Handily despite how I felt I had still awoken before the rest of the orphans just before the days first light. Pulling a small box to reach over the sink I stepped in front of the washbasin, I scrubbed my face with water before peering up into the mirror where I froze. My face was not my own, in hindsight that should have been obvious but to be this alien… I had not marked such distinctive features on others in the orphanage, my face was tanned a light brown, not unlike my previous life but running parallel from the very outside of my eyes were pencil-thick red lines that finished in a point after reaching beneath my temples and before my hair… and my hair… a shocking white in comparison to my skin it stuck out at odd angles like it had never been tamed. I tried plying at it with water but it refused all attempts to make it lie in a way that might be called neat even at a squint, I gave it up in the end and examined the rest of my body in the mirror, it seemed I had no other distinctive marks, other than my eyes which were as dark as onyx. My face was easily forgotten, I had a strong chin but was otherwise unremarkable in my features.

I finished up cleaning, walked back into the common area, rolled up my futon and put it away whilst considering my next move. I needed information. About this world and about myself. There were books in the orphanage, luckily I still remembered how to read so getting knowledge about this place shouldn't be an issue. But what about me? There must be some records on file at the orphanage detailing how I came to be here, perhaps some clue as to my parentage or where I came from. I didn't know enough about the orphanage itself yet to even make a guess as to where these documents were so I shelved that task away for later. Knowledge, hah! at the moment it seemed all of my decisions were being made due to my lack of it. For the time being I slipped out of the window and began the katas I remembered practicing in my old life in the scant privacy a copse of trees could offer - I had no desire to face the questions I might receive if someone saw me doing such things.

Whilst my mind might remember the movements and muscle memory still facilitated them it quickly became apparent that I no longer had the stamina to complete my entire workout, I clenched my teeth as sweat drenched my brow, the weakness I felt this morning no doubt hadn't helped. I gave in to exhaustion having completed less than half of my usual routine. Heading back to the orphanage I was lucky enough to slip in before many of the children had woken up and none had marked me for my absence, I took the opportunity before breakfast to bathe, luckily despite the lack of technology they still had hot water.

* * *

The day passed unremarkably, as did the next and indeed the following few weeks. I spent the spare time available to me reading up on the subjects contained within the books present at the orphanage, unfortunately much of it seemed like it was fiction and those that read like more serious works had no information that matched up with anything I remembered of my old life. One contained a map that gave the boundaries to countries I had never even heard of, many named after elements, the location of the orphanage had been marked on the map at some point during its life, somewhat close to a border but within the Land of Fire. The political state of the land seemed to be something akin to the political atmosphere from centuries before the time I lived in my previous life with Lords leading small countries and militia paid by them keeping their borders and performing tasks operating as the countries mercenary faction. Shinobi they were here. Ninjas. Something about what I read in those books caused me pause, something niggled at the back of my mind, some half remembered idea or memory but teased as it was by the books I read it refused to make itself clear.

Exhausting the available tomes on offer and knowing of no other resource to help I turned to my second task. In the weeks I had been here I had made no friends, the children had effectively made me an outcast due to how I looked, there were perhaps few things that can be as cruel as young children. My regular time away to practice my katas (which still remained beyond my strength to finish but I had made great progress in) and my habit of meditating before sleep had probably not earned me any points in that department. Luckily the matron treated everyone the same, firm but fair she was, if you crossed her there would be swift retribution but she did not ask much of the children and we were happy to oblige since she cared for us. I learned from her during my first week where the records were kept, it was no secret, they were within a room she had marked as her office, a small room with a lock near the entry to the orphanage. Getting in without matron's permission was nigh on impossible, she allowed no one in there and only used it for work herself well into the night when everyone else was sleeping. I didn't feel particularly happy about it but it seemed the only way I was getting in there any time soon was to cause a distraction to lure her away whilst she is in there.

As it would turn out I didn't need to manufacture a distraction as one came just a week later.

* * *

It began in the early evening, something was awry but I was unable to work out what was making me feel off, as the evening deepened and the sun set it had developed beyond a nebulous feeling into an unreasonable anxiety, something in the night had me on edge, nighttime came and eventually, frustrated I could not complete my evening meditation I set out, slipping out through the window, to find the cause of my disquiet. It wasn't difficult to track the direction of the source, it felt like it hung over the forest like a blanket and getting closer was just a matter of finding where it lie deepest. Quickly though I realised that it was also heading in my direction. Glancing to either side of the forest trail I made my choice and quickly climbed a tree with a handy low sprouting branch and lay flat in it waiting for the mystery to pass.

Minutes passed and I heard the light steps of multiple feet on the wind and the stumbling thud of another, peeking between a branch I saw it was 3 men escorting a girl who could be no older than 11 or 12. The girl was the one stumbling, her face tired, she bore the marks of light scuffs and scrapes and seemed to be at her strengths end, as they came close I could see she was tied from behind, her captors were dressed very similarly, as if in uniform with a plate bearing an insignia on their foreheads, the girl bore a similar one though the insignia was a variation of a spiral I had seen on maps of fire country.

I sat unmoving, not even daring to breath for several moments as they drew closer, I did not want to alert them to my presence, they had a hostage it seemed and they were definitely more armed than me wearing only the light garb the orphanage allowed us. Unfortunately one of them must have detected my presence since at an unspoken signal the one at the rear of the group grabbed the girl and almost faster than I could see ran in the direction I had come. Then several things happened at once, a boy of similar age to the girl jumped out of the trees from above me and kicked one of the 3 captors in the head instantly incapacitating him, in my shock I myself fell out of the branch I was hiding in luckily landing in a crouch, I looked up in time to see one of the remaining captors pull the girl closer to him and take off with her, the other one turned to me and the unknown attacker glanced back at me, seemingly torn, before racing after the girl.

"It's not like Konoha to send fledglings", he muttered to himself pulling what i recognised as a kunai from a pocket and spinning it with practised ease in one hand, "still, it doesn't change the parameters of the mission"

He darted with superhuman speed towards me, it was only pure instinct that saved me, as the knife came at my neck from an underhand thrust my left hand grabbed his right and my right his unarmed left wrist even as I jumped backwards, he seemed as surprised as I was at the speed I had reacted and as we tumbled backwards through the trees I tried my best to hold his arms across each other. Eventually we rolled to a stop, his body atop mine and I knew a moment of terror since, astride me, I would have no chance of removing him with my 3 year old frame and he would have ample opportunity to strike downwards upon me.

It seemed though like luck was on my side, in our tumble through the trees one of the impacts had driven the knife I was holding in his hand to the left of him sideways and into his neck. His glassy eyes stared at me obscured as they were by his sunglasses. He was dead. The feeling of having killed him even by accident left me feeling nauseous and I struggled desperately to pull away from his body, even with the fast pooling blood acting as some macabre lubricant it still took me nearly a minute, even in my panic, due to the fact that his body dwarfed me beneath his weight.

I was left no time to consider what to do with the body, as I rose I heard explosions in the distance and saw orange tinge the sky in the direction of the orphanage, running as fast as my tiny stature could carry me I made my way back in the direction of the orphanage and saw utter chaos, many of the children had made it to the tree line but I could not see Matron. The orphanage was on fire and the boy who had taken out one of the men earlier was fighting the remaining member of the squad escorting the girl and… was he running up a tree? I pulled my eyes away to ask one of the older orphans where matron was but he glanced at me in derision and shrugged. I clenched my teeth, if she wasn't here then the only place she could be was her office. I ran in the direction of the orphanage ignoring the shouts of warning from some of the other orphans. I couldn't leave her. Despite the fact I hadn't gotten to know her very well the matron had selflessly cared for me and the other orphans. She deserved better.

I reached the door and reach out for the handle to open it but hissed as i jerked my hand back, the brass knob had grown scaldingly hot from the heat of the fire inside, running around the side of the building I saw the matron slumped over her desk, the window was shattered in one corner so it appeared as though a projectile had found its way inside from the fierce battle. Removing my tunic and wrapping it around my arm I reached up and, jumping, began to knock the rest of the glass from the frame. When the glass was gone I reached up, climbed over the window and fell into the room.

'Idiot' I thought to myself as I landed on the glass I had punched from the window pane 'you won't even make it to 10 years making mistakes like that'. I gingerly pushed myself up and made my way to the matron. She was bleeding from a gash to the head and wasn't responding to my shouts, I glanced around the room but could see no help available. I realised with horror that I did not have much time to spare as thick viscous smoke was already pouring underneath the door like an upside down waterfall cascading to the ceiling.

I grabbed matrons chair and pulled her body back so that she sat with her back straight, her head hanging limp over the back of the chair and pushed her chair towards the window, once at the window I threw her upper body over the window ledge and heaved her from the chair from behind so that she eventually slipped over the edge onto the grass outside and made to follow her before glancing back. 'My past is in there' I thought to myself 'and perhaps answers', I had no choice but to dive towards the filing cabinet and begin furiously scanning names. Luckily it seemed all of the names in the draw were names of children currently at the orphanage so I had only 20 or so names to scan through before finding mine, I pulled it out, clasped it to my chest, raced to the chair and jumped out the window just as the fire finally ate through the door to the office and the backdraft caused a loud roaring and an explosion behind me, I lost consciousness as I tumbled like a ragdoll through the air in its wake.

* * *

I awoke laid against the roots of a tree. Luckily I appeared to be relatively unharmed though it was difficult to tell since I was covered in ash. I looked off towards the burnt husks of the orphanage and through the trees could see what could only be a black charcoal body amongst the rubble along the edge of where the matrons office was. I didn't need to get any closer to know who it was. I got up and retrieved the folder that lay between me and the charred remains of the orphanage and opened it. There were only 2 documents within, an official looking document announcing my name and date of birth, the year in this world's reckoning came to just over 3 years prior. The second document contained information on my delivery to the orphanage. I had been left by a woman who had accidentally conceived me in the course of her work at a night house, money was scarce and she could not care for me. There was no information regarding my father, a final note handwritten on the paper indicated that the woman who had left me at the orphanage had died some months later of disease. 'All my ties in this world are being cut away' I thought morose, I threw the folder into the last smouldering parts of the building and sat at the base of a tree considering, at a loss for what to do next. 'perhaps I will travel to the capital of this country, at least then I can find more information regarding this world and find myself a place in it', nodding to myself I stood up and stifled a shout when a face dropped into view upside down.

"Hey", the face flashed a brilliant smile before the rest of him dropped from the tree landing in a heap upside down.

"Are you… OK?" I asked, observing him as he righted himself. He seemed to be in his early teens.

"Yup" he said still seated on the ground " but more importantly are you OK? You're covered head to toe in soot" he said laughing.

I grinned, his attitude was infectious "I'm fine just some scratches I think… although", my mood soured slightly as I remembered I had nowhere to live right now "I might need some help finding some place to live now that the orphanage where I lived isn't really habitable anymore."

His grin if anything grew wider "Yeah, sorry about that, I really had my hands full back there, I've been scouting the area because there was supposed to be another one but it looks like he got away..." He paused holding his chin in thought and looking into the distance, after a moment he remembered I was there and jerked back his gaze to meet mine "Anyway all the other orphans were taken to Konoha to live in an orphanage there. They've been gone a few hours now so I guess they missed you. My name's Minato by the way" he added the last almost as an afterthought.

This guy. He was so carefree, had he forgotten it was me he saw last night the one he had left to fend off the last attacker? "You can call me Keiko… You know, it was me last night who you left behind with the last of those guys, I was lucky to even make it back!"

"Keiko? I think I'll call you Ko" I didn't really have a preference so I shrugged. Suddenly Minato's jaw dropped as he reeled and pointed at me "You fought that ninja and survived?"

I shook my head "I don't know if you would call us tumbling and him falling on his own kunai a fight but yes, he's back in the trees, I can show you where if you want. Did you say I'd be going to Konoha, the ninja village?"

At my eager question Minato's grin blossomed anew "Yes, the village hidden in the leaves, I've lived there all my life, I'll have to give you a tour! Especially as it seems I'll be your escort back."

"Where did your friend go?" I asked "The girl who was being dragged by those ninja?"

"Kushina? She went on ahead it was kinda important she make it back to the village quickly. Anyway, what's important now that my little mystery is solved is that we get you ready to go and deal with what's left of that last ninja." So saying he ruffled my hair kicking up a cloud of ash and walked ahead confidently taking the lead.

"Uh, Minato" He turned to look at me midstep, "That's the wrong way, it's this way."

* * *

When Minato reached the body he rolled out a scroll whilst I looked on bemused thinking he was reading some instructions from it he slammed his hand down upon it and I felt a rush of the same energy I now realised I had felt simmering away inside him rush into the scroll and the body just… vanished, seemingly into the scroll. Minato apparently saw my look of utter astonishment for he just smiled at me and said "later" as he guided me to a stream to wash myself of the ash and blood and dirt.

I washed most of the ash from my face immediately upon reaching the stream and I turned to me to ask him a question but froze, his face started to lose color the more he looked at me eventually he choked out "Who were your parents?"

"I'm an orphan remember? I don't have any. None that I know of anyway, my mother I know for sure is dead. My father..." I shrugged my shoulders. "Are you OK?"

Minato seemed to shrug off whatever it was that was bugging him assuring me that he was fine and he left me to it saying he would head to a nearby village to find some clothes my size. It was only when I took my clothes off at the stream that I realised just how bad they looked, they were singed and blackened in many places and the blood, now dried black and matted across most of them was not coming out any time soon. For my part I took my time, my hair as long and unkempt as it had become was a horror to get all the dirt out off but eventually it was back to its startling white, a part of me was tempted to shear it off to save the hassle but I had grown to like it.

Minato arrived back mid afternoon and set the clothes he had found by the tree line before giving me some privacy to get dressed. The clothes amounted to black trousers, a white tunic and wooden sandals, simple clothes, easily made, easily mended. I did not mind too much what they were, growing as fast as I was I had no doubt that it would soon be time to find more and then maybe I could make a more personal choice. Heading back into the trees I saw Minato finishing the last of some kind of snack bar, he saw I was ready and we set off first finding a trail which Minato followed to a wider road. He told me it would be around 5 days back to Konoha at walking speed, he said he could go faster if he carried me but he'd sustained an injury to his leg in the fight and would rather walk. So we walked.

* * *

Before long the shadows had lengthened and dimmed and as we started to enter true darkness Minato decided to set up camp, he gave me instructions to find firewood and perhaps something to eat though I thought he did not hold much hope of me managing that. Had I been an ordinary almost 4 year old boy he might have been right but I knew what to look for, quickly my eyes even in the dying light picked up signs of a den near the base of a tree, the soil still grey and unclaimed by moss or grass meant the hole could only be a few weeks old at best, I made my footsteps silent as I continued gathering wood in the area, it wasn't long before I saw a rabbit heading back to the hole, sneaking up from behind I made quick work of it and walked back to camp.

"Hey Minato," I said throwing him the rabbit, "I don't have a knife so you'll have to prepare the rabbit." Minato looked down at the rabbit he caught and back up to me before giving a quick nod and setting about skinning and preparing it to cook. I took the firwood I had brought back and started setting up a fire when I realised I didn't have anything to light it with.

"Uh, hey Minato, do you have any flint?" I asked, Minato looked up, gave one of his patented grins and threw his hands together into some kind of sign and the fire burst into life, this time I felt it clearly, the rush of his energy departing his body, changing, heating up as it left it was beyond anything I could remember from my old life and I hadn't seen anything like it here excluding the gravity defying running I saw him do yesterday and the body… vaprosing(?) scroll from yesterday. As I sat there pondering Minato rolled out another scroll, pushed his energy into it and a skin filled with water appeared, as if from thin air.

"Minato?" I asked staring as he cleaned the meat.

"huh?"

"What was that?"

"Ah the seal, you won't have seen any being so remote eh?" he looked up grinning, "Well it's a complicated subject and I'm not sure I can tell you too much since you aren't a ninja but to put it simply these diagrams on the scrolls are a kind of jutsu that allow me to seal things within with the application of chakra."

That was definitely new, I had never seen technology like that from what I remember of my old life, I frowned trying to take it in and finally said "Chakra?" hoping he would elaborate.

"Yeah, chakra, you know, your life force, its what I used to light the fire, ninjas use it for all kinds of things."

I looked at him skeptically "You're a ninja?" He couldn't even be of adult age yet

"Hey, now none of that," he laughed "I've been apprenticed to a sannin and have been a shinobi for some time. See this headband?" he said pointing to his forehead "that means I'm a ninja of Konoha"

"I see." I said even though I was sure I didn't. I sat there for some time contemplating what I had learned, Minato seemed content to leave me to think and continued preparing dinner.

It seemed the more I learned about this world ninja truly seemed to be part of the upper caste, having access to technology and knowledge that was otherwise off limits, the downside appeared to be the danger. it may be the norm for this world but someone of Minato's age taking on hostile combatants in mortal combat didn't quite sit right with me but who was I to say what was right in a world I wasn't entirely native to, even if I didn't imagine many of Minato's colleagues managed to make middle age. That being said it was definitely an area where my abilities and knowledge from my past life would be most applicable, and with no other alternatives there seemed little point in turning away from the path best suited to me.

"How would I become a ninja Minato?" I asked

Minato paused in his cooking and looked at me, his expression surprisingly serious, "It isn't easy Ko. Especially right now."

"Right now?"

"You might not know with your orphanage being so out of the way but there has been a war on for some time, if you were to become a ninja during a time like this you would be sent straight to the front line, no better than cannon fodder." He said as he poked at the fire with a harshness it didn't deserve.

"People my age would be sent with no training straight into war?" I asked

"Without training? No, you'd have to graduate from the academy first." Minato looked up eyeing me speculatively, "You know Ko, I keep forgetting you're so young. You speak like someone much older." At this he grew somber "Try not to grow up too quickly."

I could only nod to indicate I'd heard his words. Acting young was no easy feat though for someone with my situation.

Eventually the rabbit was cooked and we dug in, Minato warned be before eating that he wasn't the best cook and he wasn't kidding, he had somehow managed to overcook the rabbit so that his had a texture closer to gristle than to meat, I ate it anyway, I couldn't remember the last time I ate. That I ate it without complaint seemed to make Minato happy as well and he grinned at me over the fire. When we had finished eating I unrolled one of the sleeping mats Minato had set out whilst I was collecting wood and lay down to sleep.

* * *

I awoke suddenly, unaware of where I was I rose quickly but then the memories of the previous day came back. It was the fire that had awoken me, letting out a last pop as the fire truly died it had woken me just as twilight was shifting the sky from early morning into the light blue of a day started true.

Minato seeing I was awake dropped from a tree branch above, I surmised he had been awake for some time, he offered me one of the snack bars he was eating yesterday which I took gladly, devouring it before the taste could really register - I knew there would be little opportunity whilst on the road for anything more lavish. Minato made quick work of resealing our supplies, again that familiar surge of energy, chakra as Minato called it, punctuated every puff of smoke as things just disappeared into scrolls. I had thought about it last night but seeing what Minato could do with just chakra and seals had made up my mind. I had to be a ninja.

Soon enough we set out and we talked of ordinary things for a time, I told Minato of how I enjoyed reading and Minato told me of Konoha. Listening to him talk it was clear to see what he valued, when he talked he didn't speak of places in the village or the history, he talked to me about his friends, of people he had met. Minato valued most those people that had ingrained themselves into his life, a precious few I was quick to learn, like me Minato was also an orphan but lived alone from a young age since he had decided to become a ninja the state had seen fit to give him his own lodgings. He spoke most about Kushina, when he did he became most animated, gesticulating wildly as he walked as he told me funny anecdotes from his years at the academy. When he spoke of the academy I decided it was time to broach the subject of becoming a ninja again.

"Minato, I've been thinking about what you said last night about being a ninja" I began, "I know it's dangerous but I think that role might suit me best."

Minato glanced down at me, his hands behind his head as he walked "What do you mean Ko?"

"Well to begin with I think I already have a fighting style. I've been practicing it every day."

Minato hmmed non-commitantly

"Also I think i've already started to use my chakra."

This got a reaction from Minato, he slowed his walking and looked at me "What have you been doing with your chakra? It's dangerous for someone so young to be using any, your chakra reserves can't be enough to even tap into yet."

I smiled at Minato and channeled the warmth that suffused me into my hand, as it suffused itself in a blue aura Minato looked at the hand and then back to me in shock.

"H… How long have you been able to do that?" he asked

"As long as I can remember" I said, it was half true, as far as this body is concerned anyway.

"How long can you keep it up?" Minato asked

"Around 3 minutes now. It feels like I should have the energy to do it more but for some reason it peters out after 3 minutes" I said grinning at his astonishment.

Minato had completely stopped at this point and he looked between me and my hand again before nodding to himself. He crouched down to my level and looked me in the eye, a rare serious aura radiating from him, "Are you sure this is what you want to do Ko", I nodded and after a few more seconds his grin came back as bright as ever, he stood up and we began walking again.

"Well OK then, I can show you some things on the way back but for now we'll leave it until this evening, I want to see this fighting style you have first."

* * *

We set up camp that evening in a large clearing about 200 metres from the road, we had set up late this evening so by the time the fire was going it was already deepest night. After we had eaten Minato dusted himself off, walked just far enough from the fire that he was still still illuminated and indicated for me to step out as well.

"How much of your fighting style have you created so far Ko?" He asked as I stepped out opposite hime.

"I would say it's pretty close to complete, I have already got a set of katas to keep myself in practice. I didn't exactly get many opponents at the orphanage."

"OK, let's start there, show me what it looks like"

I took up my position and began the intricate formations that made up my fighting style, it was a style that prided itself on being strong and implacable, even if you should block a strike it would still cause considerable damage… or would as soon as I increased my strength and speed. I shifted, turning, striking at invisible opponents before moving into the next sequence. 15 minutes in I was drenched in sweat but I strived to finish all of the katas this time, eager to impress Minato I pushed beyond where I had gotten with my previous practice, many of my later katas dealt with the more defense oriented side of the style, parries to punches, strikes that simultaneously afforded me space and distanced me from the opponent. When I finally came to the end Minato was sat watching with his expression carefully blank. I stood there panting, sweat evaporating into steam in the chill night around me. Eventually he delivered his verdict.

"I do not consider myself a taijutsu master Ko but to me that looked as good and complete a style as any I have seen within Konoha. Have you truly never had a teacher?" He asked

I shook my head, "It was rare we had visitors at the orphanage."

"Well there are people more qualified to judge when we get back to Konoha but I think for now you are far beyond any of the other students your age in taijutsu at least" he said. "Now I'm itching for a spar but I can see you're tired, and I'm not exactly in perfect shape" he said indicating his leg and I gave a smile at that, "Instead let's look at your chakra, you could send it to your hand earlier, I want you to do the same thing but this time take a leaf and try and use the chakra to make the leaf stick to your hand."

I followed his instructions, seeing this as a test of some kind I took it one step at a time, first I layed a leaf on my hand, then sending chakra to it I observed how it interacted. At first it didn't have any effect, a nimbus of my chakra merely floated about my hand but as I made my chakra hug my skin tighter, sending smaller amounts to constrict the chakra to the area the leaf was I realised there were certain areas on my hand where the chakra came out from, I concentrated my chakra in small amounts around the leaf and found I could almost feel it hugging against my skin, not with any great deal of strength but it definitely felt like some force was almost pinning it in place. The first time I managed to get the leaf to such a stage I was only able to hold it for around 10 seconds but the next time I tried it passed 30 seconds before I was sure I could hold it almost indefinitely, I turned my hand upside down to Minato at this point to show him I had managed it and he grinned beatifically at me.

"That's amazing Ko, most Academy students spend weeks just getting to grips with that. You know you might be some kind of prodigy." He said

"A prodigy? Because I pick things up quickly?" I asked

"Not just that Ko, you are able to see the real objective behind an exercise extremely quickly, the real motive behind a decision. In the ninja world we call this looking underneath the underneath and it is an invaluable skill." He explained "Now I'm sure you're feeling the effects of using that chakra so lets get some sleep"

"But what about - "

He held up a hand, "We have 2, maybe 3 more nights before we reach Konoha Ko there's time enough for seals and everything else later."

I didn't want to grumble after what he had shown me, after all the knowledge he had given me was definitely closely guarded information, simple as it seemed. And he was right, there was always more time later.

* * *

Minato had me walking with leaves stuck to me whilst we walked the next day though I had to stop around early afternoon, it just seemed to peter out again leaving me feeling like I still had energy left but unable to actually produce any chakra, when I gave that up Minato passed me a scroll with a seal on it.

"This" he said, "Is a seal scroll, it can carry a small number of items within it. Seals, the art of fuinjutsu, is extremely complicated so I may not be able to answer all your questions but I'll try. Additionally some of the answers I might not be able to give you. At least for now."

The scroll contained diagrams and runes that wandered across the page to form a pattern around a central point, some of the runes seemed to be japanese in origin but there were many I had never seen before, combined with the diagrams they created a balanced whole, looking at the completed seal you could tell that it was perfectly balanced with not a single incorrect stroke or element of its iconography out of place. I marveled at it, I had taken up calligraphy later in my old life and I could respect the skill required to create something such as this - It was an art form unto itself. I needed to know how they were made.

"You OK there Ko, you've been looking at that scroll for almost an hour now" Minato said

I jerked back to alertness "I'm OK, it's just this is so interesting, I can recognise some of these symbols but I've never seen the others and the way it all flows together is memorising and it all just fits." I stopped myself before I babbled further, even though I had the memories of an old man it seemed the brain I was residing in still held some child-like tendencies. Still. This was exciting.

Minato smiled, "Well I won't be using that whilst we're travelling back so if you want you can keep it until we reach Konoha"

I nodded seriously, still engrossed in the scroll, I pointed at one of the larger diagrams, a circle of kanji set around a blank space, it was the only blank space on the scroll "What do these diagrams mean Minato?"

Minato peered over my shoulder and said "That's the central array, when an object is stored that is the part of the scroll that will pull in what is being placed inside, the rest of the scroll essentially just holds the contents in a kind of status"

I nodded, I could see now that everything had been arranged around that singular area. "Would you be able to teach me this?" At his grimace I added "If I did become a ninja?"

His face lightened slightly as he said "I don't know if I could Ko, I am a journeyman in terms of the skill of fuinjutsu but only because I specialise in one area, I might not be the best person to learn from, to do so might be limiting… I think I could find you a teacher though" At my excited expression he held up his hands "No promises. There aren't many fuinjutsu practitioners in Konoha and there are even fewer that have both a mastery of the art and the time to teach."

I nodded in acceptance and returned my attention to the scroll, attempting to figure out the meaning of each part of the scroll after having been told the purpose of the central diagram, some were obvious, some less so.

* * *

'Perhaps I could convince Minato to give me a blank scroll so that I could copy some of the elements from the sealing scroll and study them after we arrive' I thought, though I had no idea what my situation would be when we did.

We had set up camp this evening a longer distance from the road than we had before, Minato said that he knew the area and had guided us to a clearing with a stream flowing through. We had already eaten and Minato was checking the dressing for his leg wound.

"Ah looks like it has healed faster than I had thought!" he said, standing and hopping a few times from leg to leg, "Good. That means that I can really test out your combat Ko."

I jumped up, excited at the prospect, finally an opportunity to prove my worth to Minato, if I could convince him I could be a ninja I felt he might be willing to tell me more about the life and some of its secrets 'I'll have to play this carefully though, Minato is definitely more than capable of taking me out just in the difference of strength alone' I thought to myself.

Minato saw my enthusiasm and grinned back "OK, before we start though have you ever been shown how to spar? About the seals of confrontation and reconciliation?" When I shook my head he elaborated "When you spar with an allied shinobi you use the seal of confrontation to begin" here he held up his middle and index finger keeping the rest of his hand clenched "This shows your intent to face your opponent in battle. And when you close the spar you use the seal of reconciliation" at this he took my hand and brought the same fingers into a kind of two finger handshake with me "to show there is no harboured ill will from the spar."

I hummed in acknowledgement saying "you'd have to be pretty stupid to get angry over a spar."

Minato laughed and said "I'm glad you think so." He brought out a bandage and tied it around his waist leaving a long tail dangling to his knees, walking to the other side of the clearing he said "Now, your objective is going to be to grab this bandage, it doesn't matter if you rip off part of it or if you manage to get all of it either way I'll count it a win for you." seeing me nod he continued "Now lets begin." He held up his hand in a seal of confrontation.

I walked to the other side of the clearing and turned holding my hand up mirroring his.

"Don't hold back." Minato said smiling

I brought my leg forward into my most attacking stance, looked Minato in the eye and saw him as my enemy and began my approach not noticing how Minato froze minutely.

When I reached Minato I immediately went to grab the bandage, no point attacking him when the bandage was the objective. He flicked my hand away quickly, faster than I could follow but also strangely delayed, his movements were less than smooth, almost jerky.

I allowed my hand to be brushed away and fell into a crouch as the momentum of his parry slid me in a circle to his right, I reach out with my other hand as my initial inertia took me skidding past him and grabbed for the bandage.

Minato reacted slowly again but this time too slowly, he brought his left leg up to pivot and avoid my grab even as he jumped away with his right but it was too late, he landed a few feet away missing a fistful of the bandage which had torn off in my hand.

He quickly held up a hand, signalling me to pause, "That's one to you… However." He paused looking at me with mingled shock and concern "Do you know you're exuding killer intent?"

I straightened and shook my head unsure what he meant, relaxing as I did.

"You just dropped it now" Minato said "Perhaps it would help if I explained. Killer intent is an aura you give off when you intend to do someone harm. Serious harm. For that reason it isn't used in spars as a rule. We don't seriously go at our comrades intending to hurt them in a malicious way"

I frowned, realising that had been how I had viewed him in the spar, it felt almost natural to do so but I didn't realise in this world thinking in such a way had an exterior effect on your opponent.

"I'm sorry Minato, I didn't realise what I was doing, I did not truly set out to do you harm but that is the mindset with which I usually fight, after all no mercy should be given to an enemy." I said clapping my hands in front of me in contrition.

Minato nodded "It was my fault, I should have explained. I assumed it wouldn't be a problem - it normally isn't for children your age, most unlock the ability after leaving the academy. So long as you know in future." abruptly he chuckled "But really Ko that was some aura you had, most high ranked Jonin ninja wouldn't have been able to throw that much around. Honestly for a moment I thought you were going to go for me and not the bandage."

'It looks like there are other ways this world differs' I thought frowning to myself 'I'll need to be more cautious in future'

Minato, perhaps seeing my face, placated me saying "No need to beat yourself up about it Ko, there is no way you could have known. That being said though" He grinned "Let's go again."

We took up our positions again and this time I made sure I didn't direct any malicious feelings towards Minato before engaging.

"Let's go" Minato said and I launched myself across the clearing towards Minato again, slowing as I got within range, I did not think I would be able to take him by surprise with speed alone this time.

We engaged briefly, Minato quickly deflecting my blows, I attempted to push him back with raw strength and thought I saw my chance when he took a step back and I reached for the bandage just tantalisingly within reach but Minato was faster. Too fast. When my hand reached out to take the bandage he slapped it away before it had barely left my side, I gripped his hand and attempted to twist it back against his abdomen and reach out with my other hand for the bandage, unfortunately for me I had forgotten about the strength difference between myself and Minato, I quickly found he had only been humouring me with his faux retreat and grinning like a shark he redoubled the grip on my hand and threw me upwards.

I landed about as gracefully as I could given my unexpected flight, rolling to absorb the force eventually ending on my back.

I sat up slightly to look at Minato who was still smiling, I grinned just as hard in return and when I didn't move to re engage his smile faltered.

"Missing this?" I asked waving another length of bandage, all that was now left on minato was a length that clung to him like a belt with no tail hanging.

"What!? When?" Minato exclaimed.

"When you threw me. My hands were busy but my feet had plenty of time for my feet to clap a hold of it on the way" I deadpanned.

We stared at each other for a few seconds. And a few seconds later we were both laughing.

* * *

We didn't spar anymore that evening and I didn't get much sleep as I was was poring over Minato's scroll still, it felt like some parts of the scroll were becoming clear, like I could perceive the mechanism that linked their parts and what each element did, though a part of me attributed it to my sleep deprived brain, eventually the fire's light dimmed too much to see anything and I turned in to sleep.

I awoke bleary eyed to the sun almost picking its way above the trees around the clearing and jumped up realising I had overslept.

"Relax" Minato said "It's not yet midday and I think my leg wouldn't be beyond carrying us back to Konoha and if you're happy to be carried we can make it before late afternoon" he stepped over resealing some of the camping equipment, as he did so my eyes fell on the scroll I was obsessing over.

"Minato, can I ask you a question?" I asked

"Sure Ko, I'll answer if I can"

"It's about this scroll" I said, opening the sealing scroll in front of me as Minato stood at my shoulder "I think I understand what these elements are" here I pointed to two matrices on the scroll which seemed to be heavily linked to each other, last night I had finally figured out what the central kanji character to each of them were, they were old - unused for decades in my old world as far as I knew - kanji representing heat and air, "They seem to store all the heat and air around an object when it is being sealed, when the central array is activated, these activate as well and draw all of that away until the item is unsealed keeping it in a kind of status" Minato began shaking his head at this point but I pressed on "The one thing I don't understand is this final element to the seal, it activates last and whilst the other 2 seem to draw in, this one seems to… push out? Though I can't see what it would push, there's nothing stored?"

Minato continued shaking his head and walked away finishing clearing up the campsite, eventually he answered "Ko, to have figured that out on your own, without even a little help?... Well I guess I'm going to have to find you a teacher now. I couldn't have figured that much out with 2 months of training and I thought I was good at fuinjutsu, you're really something else. I suppose you'll figure it out eventually so I'll tell you, the final element creates a small pocket dimension, the kanji at the centre represents space and it pushes out using the chakra you push into the scroll to create a pocket dimension to hold the items you seal."

'The mind boggles' I thought looking back at the scroll 'how is this world at once far flung into the future and yet stuck so far in the past? Still I can see now the benefits of learning this art are huge. I must find a teacher.'

* * *

When Minato said he would carry me I thought he would be running, I nearly fell off his back when he lept up into the trees and began jumping through them at ridiculous speeds, how he could see where he was going was beyond me, I stuck my head below the height of his shoulders and hoped I wouldn't get hit by a stray branch.

Some time later, around 4 in the afternoon judging by the shadows Minato announced we were nearly there, for this final stretch he jumped down from the trees and began running on the main road into what I assume was Konoha, I had poked my head up now that it was out of danger of wayward twigs and looked out for the village.

I saw the walls first, towering high above us they occluded the rest of the village and rested just beyond a crest in the land making it impossible to see anything in the valley below it, Minato stopped to talk to a guard at the gate but my attention had been captured by a site that had my brain reeling.

In the distance, carved into the mountainside were 3 faces, I didn't know who they belonged to but I could place the scene, though there were definitely differences. My mind flashed back to my previous life, to the time I spent with my grandchildren and great grandchildren sat in front of a TV, I had never enjoyed watching the TV but at the age I was I remembered I was happy enough just to be in the presence of my family without having to chase them around. One of the shows they liked to watch had this view, he was sure of it, in the title card. I tried to remember details of the show, something, anything. Details however were lacking. Beyond a main character called Naruto and some small details of his life I could remember nothing. I made a mental note to write down what I could when I got chance. Unlikely as it was that I was in a kids show the similarities were too much to dismiss.

Minato had not noticed my small freakout and was still chatting with the guard, I however had noticed an energy approaching, similar to the one I noticed that night at the orphanage, I had realised days ago I could sense similar energies in others such as Minato and even smaller ones like the one in the guard but this was was very pronounced even in comparison to Minato, I was about to let Minato know when a voice rang out.

"MINATO!" A girl around the same age as Minato was approaching the gate at a frightening speed, with a frightening expression upon her face. Minato for his part looked torn between running and digging himself a hole, the guard had made himself scarce in record time and I was left as sole witness to what looked soon to be a murder.

She didn't slow down on approach, barely even slowed down when she ran into Minato and only came to a full stop when Minato was on the ground being held down by her stare. On his back. With me beneath him.

"Why did it take you so long to get back?!" She exclaimed. I thought I could actually see her hair moving threateningly of its own volition from my view in the dirt. Perhaps it was the wind.

Minato held up his arms placatingly "I got injured in the fight and I had to escort one of the orphans that got left behind back."

Kushina rose an eyebrow "Really. Then why don't I see anyone with you?"

I let out a perfectly manly whimper from my place underneath Minato and Kushina suddenly adopted a look of realisation.

"This" Minato said, standing up and holding my broken form aloft with one hand "Is Keiko, Keiko this is Kushina. Kushina is the one you had a hand in saving"

I waved half heartedly as Minato dusted me down with his other hand.

"I am so sorry Kei! I didn't see you - you're so small!" She grabbed me from Minato and spun me in circles so quickly the background became a blur "So small, so cute. Can we keep him Minato? You don't mind if I call you Kei do you?" I shook my head, not willing to trust my mouth due to the rapid onset nausea.

"I, er, think Ko might want to be put down Kushina" Minato said

"What did you say?"

"That Ko, erm, might want to be put down?" Minato said hopefully, he could tell that Kushina wasn't placated however as she started advancing slowly on him.

"Did you just choose a different nickname?" she asked threateningly

"What? No? That's what I've always called him, I just naturally shortened Keiko to Ko" Minato explained

"Are you saying your nickname is better than mine? If not you better start using Kei" Kushina said, her hair was back to moving mysteriously without wind and she had a smile that promised great pain

"Kei?... hmmm. Kei, Kei, Kei" Minato scratched his head as he considered it and then shook it "Nope it just sounds weird, I'll use Ko"

* * *

When Minato recovered from the punch Kushina had delivered he explained to her that we were about to head to the Hokage to report and find out where I was going. Kushina insisted on following us to the tower and so with me back in my place on Minato's back we began leaping our way over the buildings towards the faces in the distance.

As we flew through the air Minato turned his head slightly to talk to me "Are you sure you want to be a shinobi Ko?" I hummed my agreement and Minato nodded "When I speak to the Hokage I'll let him know and see about getting you enrolled about the academy" I asked about a fuinjutsu teacher which must have been difficult to hear above the roar of the wind passing but Minato seemed to understand as he said "As I said, no promises but I'll see what I can do."

When we arrived at the tower we ascended a long spiral of stairs and entered a room with a receptionist, Minato explained why he was here and asked for an audience with the Hokage as Kushina stood behind me leaning her arms on my shoulders as she grinned down at me.

The Hokage must not have been busy as we were ushered in pretty quickly whilst Kushina waited outside.

The Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen I was later to learn was his name, was a titan. I could tell as soon as I entered the office, the energy the man exudes is like the calmest ocean, unfathomably deep but perfectly controlled. To have lived to such an age as a ninja alone should have been testament to his strength. This was not a man to cross.

Minato stepped forward first "I'm here to report Hokage"

Hiruzen took a puff from his pipe and smiled as he added some finishing touches to his paperwork "Ah, Minato, I was wondering when you might get back. But who is your friend" he said turning to me

"I am Keiko, sir, Minato escorted me back from the orphanage I lived at after it was destroyed"

Sarutobi grimaced "Yes, I had heard of that. Still I'm sure you will make Konoha your home quite quickly"

I wasn't too comfortable being scrutinised by the hokage, he seemed kindly but his eyes seemed to see through me, anyone wishing to be dishonest in front of this man would find it impossible, I nodded to his statement but kept my eyes on the floor.

"It's nice to meet you Keiko, you can wait outside whilst Minato gives his report." he said

Glad to be away from his piercing gaze I nodded again and left the room.

* * *

AN: So as I said, not sure how often I'll be updating, may be weekly may be monthly see you in the next chapter


	2. Chapter 2

Dsiaclaimer: I do not own Naruto

* * *

It seemed like I wasn't going to get away from this hyper duo so soon. After we had left the tower Minato had a hushed conversation with Kushina which left her, if anything, more energetic than before, she did a sort of hopping dance away from Minato fist-pumping as she went. It could not bode well.

Minato approached me after speaking to Kushina, "I have good news and bad news" he said, keeping his face strangely blank.

"What's the good news?"

"The good news is you'll not be staying at the orphanage, the hokage has seen fit to grant you lodgings." Still his face seemed carefully blank

"Ok… what's the bad news"

Finally he cracked a beatific grin as he said "we'll be you-"

I heard no more for I was tackled and the world once again became a blur as all the colours bled into each other "We're going to be neighbours isn't that great Kei?" Kushina cried as she spun at ever faster speeds. I think at some point the blood must have drained from my head because the next thing I knew I was standing, somewhat wobbly, on the ground with Minato asking if I was ok.

"Erm, I think I'll be fine" I said, being careful not to move too much as I felt I could easily lose my balance.

"Good. Because Kushina has a second bit of news for you" Minato said

"Oh?" I eyed Kushina warily hopeful whatever it was wouldn't cause her so much excitement she would swing me around.

Kushina looked somewhat sheepish about how she had behaved but still smiled happily as she said "I've heard you might have an aptitude for fuinjutsu and as one of konoha's only real experts it would be irresponsible of me to let that slide so I'll be training you on weekends, though perhaps not until you start at the academy and only if you pass my test."

I grinned in excitement but then quickly remembered "Wait but I'm only 3, that means I won't learn anything for 2 years assuming I can start at the academy when I'm 5."

Minato stepped forward "normally that would be true but we're currently at war and the Hokage has allowed the option in your case to start when you are 4."

I thought about it. My next birthday was still 8 months away but at least it would give me time to build up my strength and knowledge for the academy beforehand. Eventually I nodded to Minato and said "ok. I'll start when I'm 4. Thank you" I added the thanks knowing he must have said something to the Hokage to convince him to let me begin early.

Minato waved away the thanks and said "With that out of the way let's get you to your new home."

* * *

The apartment was pleasingly Spartan. I did not judge myself a materialistic person and having too many things in a home often made me feel more crowded than restful. It had everything I could need of course, a kitchen, again that strange mixture of modern technology and older, more traditional methods, there was a refrigerator but no plug sockets, instead it seemed to be connected directly to the mains. There was a sink but the taps were separated hot and cold. Minato informed me that the hot water came from a tank of water kept above the building, a failsafe in case water supply is cut off during war to ensure people can still heat their homes and get warm water, he warned me however that it was not reliably safe to drink, the cold water came straight from the river and was as clean as could be found. Joining onto the kitchen - my kitchen I reminded myself - was a living space sparsely furnished with a table, seiza mats and an empty bookcase in one corner, the bedroom was a small room just slightly larger than the futon placed inside it. The bathroom was similarly equipped with the necessities of a toilet and bath.

Having given me a tour Minato and Kushina left saying they would return in the evening, I breathed a sigh of relief as they left, they were great friends but their energy, properly harnessed, could probably power the entire village, it left me mentally drained after just an afternoon. Smiling around my new home I decided I would take the opportunity to nap after the day's events.

* * *

Murmurs from the next room woke me up, the next thing I noticed was the smell of food which made me painfully aware that I had not eaten anything since that morning, I climbed out of the futon and walked into the next room.

"Kei!" Kushina exclaimed "We brought ramen, you have to try it. It's the most delicious food you can find, the way the noodles combine with the broth, and then the toppings, have you ever tried ramen before Kei?"

It took a couple of moments to take in what Kushina had said, it seemed like it had all left her mouth in the same breath, luckily Minato stepped in to rescue me.

"Slow down Kushina, besides we need to introduce him to our friend"

It was only then that I noticed the man leaned against the wall by the door, he had an unassuming profile but I knew better than to judge a book by its cover and could tell that whilst his chakra reserves weren't large by any means what he did have was perfectly controlled.

"Sakumo this is Keiko. Keiko, Sakumo" Minato said

I reached out my hand which Sakumo took in a hearty grip that dwarfed mine.

"So you're the one Minato's been talking about all day." Sakumo said smiling

"Sakumo!" Minato admonished hiding his face

"Don't worry" Sakumo continued his smile deepening "almost none of it was bad"

"Almost?" I chuckled "I hope my reputation isn't ruined already"

Sakumo smiled and shook his head "Not yet. Anyway I need to be getting back, you'll think on my proposal Minato?"

Minato nodded expression considering "I'll let you know as soon as I make my decision."

Sakumo waved to the rest of us as he opened the door behind him and left.

"Is he a ninja too?" I asked as I sat down to eat down to eat.

"One of the best." Minato responded.

Nodding I took my first bite and immediately groaned at the richness of the broth. Kushina wasn't kidding and a glance at her revealed her eyes shouting 'I told you so' over the rim of a bowl she was making quick work of.

It didn't take much longer for me to finish my bowl and as I sat back, uncomfortably full, I realised that the empty bookcase that had sat in the corner was now sat there conspicuously not empty. Kushina saw me looking at the bookcase and jumped up.

"OK Kei, listen up. I've filled your bookcase with the main reading materials you'll need for learning fuinjutsu, should you pass my test this week I've decided I will unlock level 1. From then on you'll have a challenge to prove you've really grasped what there is to learn before moving to the next level. The scrolls go all the way to level 5 which in Konoha is considered master status" Kushina explained, uncharacteristically serious.

Getting up and walking over I gazed in wonder at the knowledge on offer, the bookcase was not small by any stretch and each shelf had been almost packed to overflowing with scrolls.

"Any questions?" Kushina asked, she stood arms crossed grinning next to the scrolls.

"Just one," I said, hand reaching for one of the scrolls "What's to stop me just picking up an- agh!" I jerked my hand back, when my hand came within proximity of the scrolls my fingers felt like they had been burned with an icy cold

"That." Kushina said chuckling as I clutched my injured hand "Not to worry though, so long as you don't try too many times there shouldn't be any lasting effects. Your hand might be numb for an hour or two though."

* * *

Kushina and I arranged a time in a few days time for her to test me on fuinjutsu, apparently she wanted to test my skills as they stand and my willingness to learn the skill. It set me on edge a little, it was the first time in a very long time since I had been seriously tested on something that would have large consequences, certainly the first time since entering this life. As I had nowhere to aim my my anxiety I decided to use the days between then and now training as intensely as I could. The next morning I had asked Minato if there was anywhere I could train and he had taken me to training field conveniently behind the buildings we were housed in saying it wasn't an area I would be able to train more flashy ninja techniques but for taijutsu it was more than enough.

I began training that morning by punching and kicking a practice log embedded in the ground, I grimaced realising how soft this body was, I had trained some stamina into it but my strength was still absent and my body lacked the marks that could only be gained by endless training, my knuckles lacked calluses and as a result punching the log had begun to cause my skin to split and flay, despite this I carried on into midday at which point I wrapped my hands in bandages and went back inside to get something to eat.

"Ko!" Minato greeted "Good timing, I knew you didn't have any food stocked so I went to the market and got you some." He seemed to be just finishing unpacking.

"You didn't need to do that Minato" I said concerned. I did not like the idea of him spending his time looking after me, he had already done so much.

"Nonsense Ko, you're 3. As mature as you are you can't do everything yourself." Minato replied

As much as I wanted to disagree I knew I couldn't. I was, at least physically, 3 years old and if I were in his position I know I would feel remiss if I were to allow someone my age to forage for themself alone.

Suddenly Minato looked at me in concern, or more specifically my hands, "What have you done to yourself?" he asked aghast. I looked down and saw my hands had bled through the bandages and the are around my knuckles was a striking crimson.

I chuckled nervously "It's nothing to worry about, I just trained pretty hard, I bandaged them properly though!"

Minato shook his head, kneeling down to examine my hands he said "Normally I'd insist you go to the hospital to get this looked at but since we're currently at war, bandaging would likely be all they had time for with something this superficial. That being said, lets change these since they're already bloody, but I don't want to see that you've damaged yourself so badly in future in simple training.."

I grimaced properly chastised, he was right but there was a part of me that couldn't stand to be encased in a body so ill trained. I looked at Minato and nodded, he smiled back and and helped remove the bandages on my hands telling me he would take care of the mess, he worked fast and soon his hands overtook mine and moments later I found myself freshly bandaged with the bloodied bandages nowhere in sight.

"Well I need to go run some errands but there's food in the kitchen now so there's nothing you should need to go out for, there should be some clothes in the bag on the counter as well." Minato said

He certainly was thorough, I was grateful he did so much for me - I would have no idea where to begin even getting the money together for clothing. I said goodbye and he quickly vanished.

After cooking myself a meal I decided to start with my other area of training - muscle buildup, I still felt thin and sinewy in this body despite my kata practice and it seemed like the best option in the short term to adapt my body for my fighting style other than physically building resistance to the strong blows it delivered.

I spent the afternoon doing weight training with the heaviest objects I could find in the house and when evening came I used my bathroom to clean and went to sleep.

* * *

The next few days followed the same rhythm as the first. I learned to better measure my blows so I did not do too much damage to my hand and it seemed to be healing gradually. Almost a week later I came home at midday to find Kushina already sat at my table with some scrolls, brushes and ink layed out in front of her.

"It's nice to have a visitor" I said smiling at Kushina, she was the first person I had seen in the last week, my cupboards kept getting replenished so I hadn't really had any excuse to go out and explore the village.

Kushina smiled back looking a little guilty "Yeah, I'm sorry about that Kei, with the war on and my own training to keep up it's been difficult to find time for social calls. I think Minato is the same."

"Oh, It's not a problem" I said, not wanting Kushina to think I being surly, "I was used to being left to my own devices at the orphanage. The other children there weren't the biggest fans for whatever reason."

Kushina looked up at that, looking a bit guilty and then she saw my still bandaged hands "Well I can see why" she said, jumping up and encasing me in a headlock "what kind of idiot hurts themselves training" I tried to whine back an excuse but she carried on "Don't tell me you haven't been injuring yourself training, Minato has told me everything" She released me and took my hands in hers "You will need to take care of these, from now on they're going to be one of your greatest assets - you can't make seals without hands!"

I chuckled uncomfortably as she unwrapped my bandages, hoping they had healed enough not to get me berated any more.

"Well. They don't look too bad." she said consideringly "Take a seat, it's time for your first test"

I sat down at the table and observed what she had put before me, there were 2 scrolls, 1 blank and the other containing a multitude of different runes. They started off easy enough, many of them appearing similar to characters I had seen in my last life, but as they disappeared into the rest of the rolled up scroll I could see other non-standard characters. A spiral that ran jaggedly in circles until finishing in its center, a character that looked kind of like a trident but with 2 prongs at the bottom as well. I looked up at Kushina in askance.

"What you need to do is copy all of the characters in this scroll into the empty one in front of you, don't worry about what they mean they'll teach you that in school anyway, what's more important for now is that you have perfect handwriting, the sigillography of fuiinjutsu is very precise and mistakes can easily be fatal" Kushina said from somewhere behind me.

I turned around to look at her "You know I can read perfectly well, right? I know what a lot of these characters represent."

Kushina looked at me for a moment, "Huh. Well Minato did say you were advanced. Lets see how advanced you are. Get writing!"

* * *

In the end it wasn't that hard. I had taken calligraphy as one of my many hobbies in the latter years of my old life but there were certainly some things I had to adapt to. My hands for one were much, much smaller than I was used to them being, I had mostly fixed that by taking up a new grip on the brush, the other problem was the equipment, the brush was much tougher and less malleable than I was accustomed to causing me to apply too much pressure in some areas which had caused blotting, the other problem was the ink, it was made using an older technique involving an inkstick which was ground with water into ink, I hadn't made ink this way before and my first attempts were clumsy coming out either took thick or to runny it was only halfway through copying the characters I found the right balance.

Kushina sat in front of me looking at my finished work intently, for my part I sat broiled in anxiety fearful I might not have met Kushina's standards, thinking about how I should have tried to create the ink correctly before putting brush to paper.

"Hmmm" she said at last looking up at me "It is definitely more than I expected" I sat expectantly waiting for her verdict "You pass" she said at last her face breaking into a grin for the first time since we started.

"Thank You Kushina-sensei" I said bowing my head and letting out at least a small sigh of relief.

"None of that" Kushina said, waving away the title "Just call me Kushina, I'm not that old yet!"

"Yes Kushina… sensei" I said grinning teasingly at her

"Gragh!" She groaned putting her head into her hands. "Anyway, there's one last thing I want you to look at"

Kushina sat back up and pulled a scroll she had been hiding up a sleeve out and rolled it out in front of me. It was… complicated to say the least, lines crossed each other almost chaotically, there were many characters I hadn't even seen on the scroll Kushina had me copy out and on top of that some parts of the scroll seemed like seals unto themselves. I looked up after a time feeling unsure what Kushina was asking of me.

"Kushina… I hope you're not going to ask me what this is because I..." I trailed off shaking my head

Kushina laughed "No, I wouldn't expect you to know what this is at all, let's just call it a project. However there's been some problems recently and the seal won't even begin to activate, it just explodes. I was just thinking maybe you could see if there were any flaws, fresh pair of eyes and all that."

I raised an eyebrow before looking at the scroll again trying this time not to see the individual parts but the seal as a whole, if there was something stopping it from getting going at all I reasoned to myself it can't just be a small omission, there must be something intrinsically wrong with the seal's design. I sat there for some time looking and eventually I realised that the seal as a whole wasn't balanced, the elements that I could see activated the seal which were not too different from the sealing scroll Minato showed me and were connected to each side of the seal but one of them had several lines stretching away to connect to another line that did not lead anywhere but to the central part of the seal, they seemingly had no use other than to power the seal, normally the energy would find its way there anyway which made the lines superfluous. Whilst the energy they took was likely to prevent other smaller parts of the seal from becoming overpowered they added nothing themselves, otherwise the seal seemed like a masterpiece.

At length I finally looked up to tell Kushina and realised that whilst I was looking at the scroll it had become nighttime and kushina was eating a cup ramen. Closer examination revealed it to be her 3rd. I sighed, I couldn't complain since Kushina and Minato had bought them for me in the first place but it was amazing how quickly she got through them. At my sigh she looked up and realised I had finished looking at the scroll.

"So. Find anything?" Kushina asked

"Just this" I said point to the part of the seal where the lines were, "I can't fully explain why but it seems like these lines are both necessary and superfluous, they might be causing the problem"

Kushina put her empty cup noodle down and leaned over "ahh interesting, you might be right Ko though I think I'll need to do some thinking on how to solve it. What did you think of the rest of the seal?"

"... Beautiful" I said running a finger down one edge "I can't imagine the time that must have gone into this"

Kushina smiled "You're right about that too! Anyway seeing as you passed my test - " She performed several hand signs in a blur as she got up and approached my bookcase, she then slammed one of her hands into the side of it and a ripple of chakra radiated from where she made contact "You get access to the first level, that should keep you busy for a while. Let me know if you need any help."

* * *

AN: I had some free time so I wrote this up, I have a fair chunk of the next chapter done as well so you can expect that to be up within the next couple of days as well. See you next time.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

* * *

Minato's POV

When I had arrived at our usual meeting place and found Kushina missing I hadn't been overtly worried, she could on occasion show up late, on closer inspection though the area held some minor signs of struggle. A patch of scorched earth on one side of the forest clearing, some broken branches nearby. It was the hair that tipped me off that something was very wrong though, at the sight of her crimson hair lying on the ground something inside me squeezed painfully and I quickly set to action. Jumping through the trees, following by feel of Kushina's chakra that still lingered on her hair she had left behind more than through sight of the hair itself on the forest floor. When I realised they had already gotten beyond the village walls I stopped only to write a brief message and summon a messenger toad to deliver it to the Hokage.

"Kosuke, I need you to take this scroll to the hokage, it's urgent" I said trying to impress the gravity of the situation into the young toad

"Understood" the summon replied grabbing the scroll and leaping away.

I sighed in relief as I jumped away back in pursuit, Kosuke was still young but he was one of the few toads Jiraiya had introduced me to, he usually wanted to play when he was summoned so I was relieved that he had taken to the job so quickly.

Judging by the amount of chakra that still lingered on Kushina's hair she could not be more than an hour ahead but who ever the kidnappers were they wouldn't linger, to have been strong enough to subdue Kushina and escape the village with her undetected was indication enough that these were professionals, the direction they were going was the Kumo border and I doubt they would stop to break before then, I could only hope I was faster than them or that they were waylaid enough that I could make ground.

* * *

It wasn't until 2 days later that I finally caught up to the kidnappers, even travelling through the night I had made little ground, in the end what slowed them down was Kushina, the scrapes and cuts evidence of her resistance. It wasn't a moment too soon for we were getting pretty close to the Kumo border, tracking perpendicular to them through the trees I saw them pause for something and I saw one of them subconsciously turn their heads in my direction, I thought for a second I had somehow been detected but then I saw below me in the dim light the night granted a small child desperately clinging to a lower branch, unfortunately that left me with no more time to observe.

Deftly unsheathing a kunai I intercepted the first of the Kumo ninjas before they could escape, I heard a crash as this happened and some part of me realised the child had fallen from the tree but my attention was on Kushina whom one of the Kumo nin had taken hold of and made his escape, I made to go after them but realised I would be leaving that child to the last of the kidnappers who appeared to think that the child was with me. I took a moment to glance back at the child realising I could do nothing to save him since I had to save Kushina and we were too close to the border already. I left him.

Kushina luckily wasn't altogether helpless and was causing her captor a lot of trouble in carrying her, this gave me plenty of opportunity to catch up and he soon realised he wouldn't be able to get away without first dealing with me, he stopped just short of a clearing with a large wooden building in it and knocked out Kushina, throwing her to the roots of a tree before turning to me.

"You'd go this far for one of them? I heard Konoha was soft hearted but this is something else" He spat.

I didn't give any response, except to continue circling until I could hopefully stand between him and the innocent bystanders in the wooden building, I would not endanger others if I could help it. To my chagrin he started forming hand signs when I was in front of Kushina, quickly responding I used one of my stronger wind jutsu which only made the situation worse, I had been expecting an earth attack but this Kumo nin seemed to know fire jutsu.

The attacks collided and combined in the worst way, a conflagration of flames whipped there way into the clearing and engulfed fully half of the building. From that moment I tried to attack him with less destructive means, getting up close and engaging him with my kunai seemed to surprise him and I quickly realised through our next few encounters that close combat was not his strong suit, after a few minutes he was looking worse for wear with shallow cuts criss-crossing his upper arms and a particularly nasty one down his right cheek, he took this opportunity to flee into the trees where I followed, luckily it seemed the building had been fully evacuated during this and at least a few dozen children were stood just at the edge of the clearing.

When I caught up with the enemy again it was in a small clearing, when I landed behind him he didn't turn around and I approached warily. When he still didn't react when I had my kunai at the back of his neck I was about to incapacitate him when he turned around and grabbed me. With horror I realised he had an explosive tag wrapped around a kunai between his teeth, one look in his eyes and I realised his plan, the man was at his end and he planned to take me down with him, I couldn't form hand signs because of his hold on me so I did the only thing I could, my newly invented technique the Rasengan. Drilling it into his back he released me with a grunt of pain and I backflipped away as the tag exploded eviscerating him.

* * *

With no corpse to take care of and no evidence remaining to show the ninja's origins I headed back to Kushina to check she was OK, luckily with the exception of some quickly healing scratches and a bruise on her head she seemed to be fine, I picked her up and set her down by the roots of a nearby tree noting that she appeared to be coming around whilst I went back to the first ninja I had taken out and stored him in a scroll, a part of me wondered where the 3rd had gone and what had happened to that poor child. Eventually I made my way back to the now collapsed building where children were still amassed and learnt from them that it was an orphanage. I could not deny I felt some measure of responsibility for their plight having literally fanned the flames and with no adult around it seemed like there would be noone to take care of them, I summoned Kosuke again to advise the Hokage of what had occured and that I would be sending Kushina back with a large group of orphans.

When the wreckage of the building had cooled somewhat I picked through what I could for any information about the children that lived there, we were still at war after all and an orphanage was an almost perfect plant for a spy. Eventually I found some cabinets toppled over and whilst the documents inside were certainly singed they had been mercifully saved from damage that would render them unreadable, I stored these away in a scroll and as I did a team of ninja flickered into the clearing wearing Konoha headbands.

"We were sent by the Hokage to help escort the children and Kushina back to Konoha" Their leader explained. At my subtle hand gesture he returned the correct standard wartime sign for ninja sent to assist.

"Well Kushina is just resting by a tree over there" I pointed off in her direction as I walked over to hand them the scroll with the childrens records "These are the records for the children you'll be escorting, deliver them to the hokage"

The team nodded at my instructions, not even waiting for Kushina to fully wake up before rounding up the children and making their way back to Konoha, one of them carrying Kushina as they went. On the wind 20 or so minutes later I thought I could hear the sound of Kushina's wrath at being carried.

I spent the next few hours looking for where the 3rd ninja could have gone, but with it being dark the night before and with no knowledge of the layout of the land it was looking unlikely I would find anything. It was then I heard something back towards the orphanage, heading back to check out the noise I saw a kid sat at the base of a tree. 'Was he one of the orphans?' I thought to myself, I couldn't remember seeing him in the crowd earlier in the day and they should have all been sent back to Konoha. I decided to approach him to see what he was doing here.

* * *

My first impression of Ko was that he was a somewhat precocious child, probably no older than 4 or 5. I had left him to get cleaned up whilst I followed the main road back to a nearby village where I'd hopefully be able to find him replacement clothes. To think he had taken out another Ninja of at least chunin rank, at his age… I shook my head, certainly there would have been an element of luck involved but he was still a lone child. Then there was how he looked when he had first cleaned his face in that river - I almost thought I was seeing someone else. Too close to be a coincidence. Ko was quickly turning into a person of significant interest.

What I knew already almost deserved another message to the Hokage, but I wanted to speak to Ko more, behind his eyes it sounds odd to say but its like someone much older is staring back, his gaze held a weight that ill fit his otherwise miniature frame.

It took me almost an hour to get to the village and between my journey there and my journey back I decided I was going to take my time heading back to Konoha, Ko warranted some further study.

* * *

When night fell I took up watch on the camp we had made on our way to Konoha considering my small companion. Honestly when I sent him looking for something to eat I didn't expect anything, that he came back with what he did was… intriguing. His interest in being a ninja worried me, I would defend Konoha as being the premier village but when it came to pushing promising young ninja, especially in war time, we did not have the best approach, though it was certainly better than some of the other villages.

Still if it was what he wanted I wouldn't stop him, tomorrow I decided I would show him the sealing scroll, if he was really interested in being a ninja learning about some of the smaller things like the tools we use would probably be a good place to start.

* * *

I had set up watch again the next night and it seemed this night had brought its own surprises as well. This kid. I had completely forgotten about showing him the sealing scroll. Ko couldn't be more than 3/4 years old and he already had access to his chakra and had the control to complete the leaf exercise… I took a few hours and I was much older when I tried it. And his chakra, I don't think he has realised but he has huge reserves for a child his age, even if he felt like he should be able to keep going. After seeing all that he had shown me a complete fighting style he had apparently invented as well! The only question was; was this too good to be true? That, I decided, would be up to the hokage.

I will show him the sealing scroll tomorrow as well as inspect his other skills before we reached Konoha, with the possible ramifications this child brings I wanted to make my observations as complete as possible.

* * *

As I set up for my 3rd night on watch I realised I couldn't be relied on to be objective in this. I had accidentally befriended Ko when I only intended to make observations. Had anybody else his age been able to generate that amount of killing intent I would have assumed they had been born into a broken home and abused their entire life, Ko being able to generate that amount was disconcerting and didn't bode well for his mental health. I didn't want to say so but I think the hokage would consider it suspicious if he wasn't mentally disturbed as it pointed to something more sinister - prior training. And with everything else he has displayed so far it wouldn't be a far fetched idea. But still. Watching Ko from the tree I was in I didn't want to believe it. His form in the spar following that had been good enough though, even managed to get the bandage from me. He had wrapped the bandage around his wrist despite it just being a cotton bandage so he was obviously proud of the feat, the same wrist was wrapped around the scroll which was half open even as he slept. I did not think he would take such an interest in the scroll, he's far too young to read or write so divining what the seal elements do will be far beyond him. His borderline obsession was endearing though.

I decided I didn't want to get any closer to Ko until the hokage made his decision, I felt too close already. Tomorrow I will carry him the rest of the way to Konoha.

* * *

Finally meeting up with Kushina made me feel like a weight I did not know I was holding had been cut suddenly away, she noticed the same things I did about Ko immediately but some quick sign language let her know not to discuss it here, anybody could be listening and even if they were not enemies knowledge freely given can easily become a sword with no grip, a weapon that you cannot use without also hurting yourself. I longed to tell Kushina about Ko's abilities. About the alacrity with which he approached fuinjutsu, rare in itself, but also his genius to decipher a seal, even a simple one, without help. Kushina had told me of relatives from her home village who were talented enough to take apart a seal on sight from a young age but I had never truly believed her, Ko himself didn't have any of the Uzumaki traits such as the red hair and he definitely wasn't hot tempered but for his abilities with seals even without training it would not surprise me to learn he had some ancestry from Uzushiogakure.

Upon entering the Hokage's office the hokage immediately marked Ko for the same reason I did, I signalled to the Hokage that I would explain before introducing Ko who seemed kind of overwhelmed by the hokage. I couldn't blame him, he wasn't called the god of shinobi for nothing, when he eventually made his escape from the room I stood up from my knelt position to report.

The hokage reached for his pipe, knocking it against the table before refilling it with tobacco, lighting it with a deft application of chakra he took a deep inhale from his pipe before turning to me and saying "Report"

* * *

"Hokage, as you already know I recovered Kushina near the Kumo border, after subduing her captors I sent the children from the orphanage that was destroyed back to konoha to be relocated to orphanages here. The next day I discovered Ko, full name Keiko, nearby. He is apparently a member of the same orphanage but wasn't around when the other group were dispatched." here MInato grimaced "Part of that was my fault, when I first made contact with the kidnappers I chased after the one holding Kushina and left the final enemy behind, he seemed to think Ko was a Konoha shinobi. By chance Ko actually managed to subdue the Kumo nin and make it back to the orphanage. I finished collecting all the bodies once Ko showed me where the last one was and placed them all in body scrolls" Minato stepped forward and placed the scrolls on the Hokage's desk "After that Ko and I began to make our way back to Konoha"

Sarutobi nodded, considering. At length he asked "You have been some days coming back, I did not hear any reports of you being waylaid?"

"No. I thought it prudent, considering the situation, to spend some time monitoring Ko on the way back to Konoha, I spent that time testing him in various ways which I'll include in my written report but… to make a long story short he appears to show knowledge beyond his years in chakra application, taijutsu and especially fuinjustu. I would like to suggest that he begin training in the area of fuinjutsu immediately with that in mind. Apart from that all I discerned from Ko is that it is his desire to be a ninja and also that he has a maturity of a much older man. Considering it is his desire to be a ninja I don't think we can ignore his education considering his apparent lineage"

The hokage nodded but seemed strangely distracted. "I was concerned before with this Ko. you were right about his maturity I saw it in his eyes when he walked in - he had eyes I would expect to see in someone my age. After what you have told me I am only more concerned."

Minato frowned concerned "May I ask why?"

The hokage cast an arm to a box of files beside his desk "These were the files you sent back with the orphans records, we have luckily been able to recover all of them and all of the children were accounted for before you arrived." Minato started in realisation of what the hokage was saying but the hokage continued "This means that Keiko could be lying about his origins at the orphanage, indeed it is not unlikely considering we are at war it is very possible he is in fact a spy. Considering what you have told me about his advanced knowledge and maturity… I cannot discount the possibility."

"But that can't be, Ko does not seem the type to lie and I couldn't detect any subterfuge in the days I have travelled with him!" Minato exclaimed

"Be that as it may the danger is too high, I would send him straight to T&I" Minato looked ready to interrupt but the Hokage held up his hand for him to wait "but… I cannot in good conscience send a child who we have nothing but suspicions of to be tortured. Even in war we must have limits. That being said I cannot allow him among the civilian populace either. So let's confirm what we can for now and observe Ko for the moment. I am going to place you and Kushina on a permanent B grade mission to observe Ko and not allow him to enter the village proper, at least for now he must kept away from the civilians until any malicious intentions can be ruled out."

"Hokage, there is an empty apartment just next door to Kushina and I, perhaps he could stay there."

"In the ninja district?" the hokage considered before nodding to himself "Yes that might be for the best. I want weekly reports on Ko, you may train him in fuinjutsu and if he is not judged a spy within the next few months he may enter the this year's roster of academy students. You need not be watching him all the time but I want either yourself or Kushina to be watching to make sure he doesn't leave. You may still go on missions but only one of you at any time. I'd offer other ninja to take part in this mission but considering who he appears to be I can't allow the wrong ears to hear about this" Hiruzen pinched his nose as he lowered his head "It seems my students habits have caught up with him"

"It's hard to miss isn't it" Minato said

The hokage nodded "For a moment when he walked in I felt as though I had gone back in time. Still we have to be sure. Confirm what we suspect. Your first task is to get a DNA sample and have it checked against the sample we have on record from Jiraiya."

* * *

AN: Seems I'm on a roll today, it won't always be anywhere near this frequent. See you in the next chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

* * *

A few months passed and I actually found I knew the answer to get the level 2 shelf unlocked, the puzzle involved a set of nodes within a seal that placed in the same area would cause the seal to overload and collapse on itself, not creating an explosion (luckily for me since I failed the test the first few times) but instead just fizzling out. The answer to the puzzle was that you placed one set of nodes on one side of the scroll and the other on the other side. I had not yet seen Kushina since I had accomplished getting to the second level since she was on a mission according to Minato but he congratulated me when I told him and he had enough knowledge of sealing to explain the uses of such a design.

"Well sometimes you may want a seal with a dual purpose, in my house for instance I created a seal for the air conditioning that draws warm air in and expels cold air on the other side, you have to be careful when creating a seal that it does not become paradoxical, placing elements on 2 sides of the same scroll is one way of doing that, there are ways of getting around that limitation without having to use the other side of the scroll but thats really advanced and even I don't know much about that, Kushina will be able to tell you when you're ready though." he told me.

I noted down this advice as I did most things I learned in a notebook Kushina provided shortly after I first started learning which was handily sealed so that only I could open it. My memory seemed pretty infallible as I could remember almost everything anyone said word for word but it didn't hurt to note it down especially considering my memory had been sabotaged in the past with many memories of my past life missing. In the notebook I had also noted the scant few things I had remembered about the show, written in a code in a second language from my old life that possessed another writing system. It required a cipher to decrypt it even if someone in this world could read it making it practically impossible to read without the cipher. To tell the truth though there was little to write. I knew the show and the main characters name was Naruto, that it, oddly, took place some time after the present I currently found myself in - which I only knew because there were more heads on the mountain in the title card - and something about a giant fox demon. As a result of these three pieces of information I felt there was only one warning I could write down that may help prevent any of the drama that took place in the TV programme and that was to prevent the attack of a giant fox. Little to go on but it was all I had.

As much progress as I had made with my fuinjutsu the next task to unlock the next level seemed practically impossible. Mostly because there was no instructions to the puzzle, just a seal that did nothing and made no sense, contradicting itself many times in it's design, I resigned myself to thoroughly reading the dense scrolls available on the shelves I had access to.

* * *

With 2 months to go until I started at the academy I finally judged my body as prepared as I could make it outside of actual combat and began to reduce my time training my body to work on increasing my strength, at this point despite being 4 years old I was just below 4 foot 5 inches, the growth spurt I had undergone since arriving in this world had not just been surprising - it had been remarked upon by Minato and Kushina - But it had also been painful, my already building muscles had been forced to stretch over a larger and larger frame. It made sense then that during this time my cupboards were emptied at record rates, once or twice I had tried to venture into the village to get more food but I had been caught on my way both times by Minato who insisted he collect my shopping for me. I was grateful but I was worried he was taking it a little far, I thought I had shown myself independent enough at this point that I could get my own groceries. I told Minato this and he had told me there were troubles in the village at the moment and he didn't want me getting injured, I had to concede it was a reasonable point, he told me not to worry however as it should have calmed down within a few months.

At the moment my days consisted of practicing my katas in the early morning and then following that endless, crushing strength training. I had found that my strength in this world grew to bounds I would have thought impossible in my last life and that many of my weights consisted of objects I wouldn't have dreamt of lifting especially at my young age, one of them being the trunk of a fully grown tree that had been felled near the training ground. As a result of my strength training and my practice to accustom my body to the strikes it needed to take I found that each punch I made on the training ground practice stump now took chunks out of the surface and my kicks fractured the bark. My evenings were spent meditating and practicing chakra control until my reserves were expended though I was struggling to find new ways to get finer control. Recently I had found a technique which I was still finding difficult to accomplish involving rolling drops of water around my hand, this involved keeping a small delicate barrier between the water and my skin so that it stayed as a bead of water and another layer of chakra above that compelling it to move across my hand.

My hair during this time had also seen its own meteoric growth, I now kept it bound with a red band at the back of my head otherwise it would be long enough and thick enough to surround my entire body.

What really concerned me during this time was the war. It seemed like all the news Minato and Kushina brought back was negative. Konoha seemed to be holding its own from what I understood but the amount of funerals I had seen them attend was very concerning. It wasn't unusual on many days to see people walking down the street outside dressed in funeral attire. I wished I could help but until I graduated from the Academy there seemed to be little I could do.

* * *

 **Classified**

Keiko's file

Clearance Level: S (unless access granted by the Hokage)

Name: Keiko (No known last name)

Age: 4

Parents: Jiraiya, Unknown

Height: 4 foot 6 inches

Appearance: Keiko presents as a dark skinned child, muscular in build, distinctive marks include red marks stretching from his eyes to his temples, close observation has indicated these are growing similar to his father Jiraiya, the subject also shares the same white hair which has grown at an accelerated rate since arrival in the village, originally wearing a cheap tunic, trousers and sandals on arrival he has since transitioned to a more spartan wardrobe wearing only trousers held up with a rope belt eschewing any footwear, this appears to be due to his accelerated growth which has resulted in him outgrowing clothes within weeks.

Skills:

Taijutsu (untested) - High Genin

Ninjutsu (untested) - Unknown

Genjutsu (untested) - Unknown

Fuinjutsu - Jonin

Chakra control - Chunin

Intelligence - Unknown, suspected to be Jonin

Bio: Subject first found on border with Kumo following an altercation with Kumo kidnappers, subject presented himself as belonging to an orphanage in the area but no papers are on record from the orphanage indicating he resided there, questioning other orphanage members has brought mixed results with some saying they vaguely remembered such a child and others stating they knew no one of that description. Subject has been confirmed to be an offspring of the ninja Jiraiya though he has not yet been notified since he is out of the village. Subject has been observed since his arrival at Konoha and has shown he has extremely advanced knowledge usually only displayed in individuals 3-4 times his age such as his ability to read fluently on arrival. As a result he has been marked as a possible prodigy. He has also displayed great proficiency in the ninja arts he has actively practiced in, becoming classed as high genin in taijutsu without any active teaching. Related to this he has seemingly created his own fighting style which has been compared to the style of Might Duy though in many ways it seems more advanced offering other avenues of attack than brute strength alone, subject has also been observed completing increasingly intricate chakra control exercises unprompted, some of these have been added to the ninja library to be considered as potential, more advanced, exercises to be taught at the academy. Subject has few belongings but has begun keeping a journal of sorts which he believes is keyed to open only to him (see notes below), current policy regarding the subject is to keep him under observation which is currently being achieved through a B rank mission. No evidence of malicious intent has yet been observed.

Recommendation: Current recommendation is to allow subject to attend the ninja academy and allow access to the village whilst stopping the current B ranked observation mission and assigning a low level Anbu member to take over his observation.

Notes: Currently keeps a journal he believes opens only to himself, contains some kind of unknown language, among other things, suspected to be coded, research has revealed this to be highly sophisticated and it is unknown whether it will ever be deciphered. It's presence alone though is suspicious and is cause enough for further observation.

* * *

AN: A shorter one today, sorry about that. I actually did look at the reviews and got quite enthused when I saw some of them were positive so I think I might try and write a much longer one next.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

* * *

The day had finally come, today was my first day at the academy, Minato was guiding me to it since I still had not explored the village, my developing child's brain was working on overdrive asking every and all questions that came to mind such was my excitement.

"What do they actually teach us?" I asked Minato, it must have been the 3rd time I had asked a similar question on our way to the academy, I knew it must be beginning to wear think but I couldn't help it. I was surprised I wasn't actually running rings around him as he walked.

"Well it's your first year so usually it would just be the basic; math, history, reading and writing and so on." he said and I suddenly understood what that meant, I would probably be spending my year learning subjects that I was already well versed in, he must have seen my face for he continued "Of course with us being at war currently those subjects will probably be pushed into your spare time and the things they'll actually be teaching you at school will be chakra control, the basics of taijutsu and maybe some low rank ninjutsu."

I was still a little disappointed, I felt like I had chakra control pretty much perfected and I knew I was beyond the basics of taijutsu. I was excited by the idea of learning ninjutsu though, Minato had shown one to me months ago and I was still blown away by the idea someone could just create a copy of themselves and if you were good enough even more than one copy.

I turned to ask Minato another question but before I opened my mouth I realised we had arrived, if the building proclaiming itself to be the academy hadn't given itself away the throng of children and parents stood outside did, I looked in askance at Minato for permission to go ahead and chuckling he gestured me onwards.

"I'll pick you up today but you'll have to make your way to and from the academy alone from today I have a mission starting tomorrow." He said

I paused in my rush to join the other students and looked back at him concerned, he saw my concern immediately and waved it away "Don't worry I shouldn't be on the front lines"

I nodded and reluctantly turned back to the academy where the Hokage who I hadn't seen since first entering the village was making his way to the front of the crowd, I found a space somewhere in the middle of the crowd so as not to draw attention next to someone with hair almost as white as mine though he was a little shorter. In fact… I now realised my hope of not drawing attention was a little optimistic since I stood at least half a foot over most of the other students, suddenly self conscious I at least tried to crouch a little, the kid stood next to me glanced in my direction for a moment but then dismissed me just as quickly as the Hokage began speaking.

"It is a privilege to see so many willing shinobi present even knowing our current situation, I look forward to seeing how your careers progress, how you develop your own will of fire and seeing you accomplish your own dreams and ambitions." He spoke with a voice that warranted respect but he smiled to everyone present, a smile that reached even to his eyes where they revealed the beginnings of crows feet. "That being said I will now hand you over to Gen Daichi who will give you your class number."

It was a short speech but it was perhaps all the time he could spare considering the war that was still raging, I was surprised he had personally come at all, I didn't have longer to consider it though as Gen stepped forward and began reading names followed by a number.

"Are you starting the academy late?" The kid next to me asked

I smiled and shook my head "I'm actually starting early, I'm just tall for my age, I'm actually only 4"

At this his eyes widened, it was really the only way to gauge his reaction to anything since the lower half of his face was hidden behind a mask, he quickly recovered though and huffed, "If you started late there's no need to lie about it, there's no way you're 4"

I raised my eyebrows but didn't get the opportunity to reply as he suddenly turned around as it appeared his name was called followed by the number 3, I was called a moment later and given the same number.

"Huh, looks like we'll be in the same class" I said "I'm Keiko" I introduced myself proffering my hand.

He seemed to take a moment before grasping my hand in return saying "I'm Hatake Kakashi, just call me Kakashi."

I nodded and there was no more time to exchange pleasantries as the students began filtering inside, each group of children following an adult holding a board with a number, ours seemed to be the smallest group containing only 10 or so children, most of them dressed in similar clothing, almost like a uniform, I suddenly felt self conscious for another reason, I hadn't considered buying any new clothes for the academy so I was still wearing only a pair of trousers with a rope belt and standing barefoot, worse than that these trousers were quite old and had become ragged at the bottom. Kakashi did not seem to mind but making eye contact with some of the other students in our group I could tell it definitely did not do me any favours. Kakashi saw this and my dilemma and huffed again beneath his mask.

"Don't worry about them, if you're not part of their clan they likely wouldn't talk to you anyway." He said.

I nodded, slightly mollified though still feeling vaguely like I had committed some kind of faux pas, we reached the classroom and filed in. The classrooms had an interesting design where each desk was tiered above the one in front, presumably to make sure everyone could see, Kakashi made his way up and sat somewhere about midway up and I followed suit sitting next to him, whether he welcomed this or not he didn't give any indication but stayed looking down towards the front of the class where a man in a Konoha headband had entered carrying a sheaf of papers, he waited until everyone had taken a seat before he began speaking.

"Those of you here have been selected as being prospective students advanced enough to be put in one of the more advanced classes, I've been told you can all read and write so you should have no problem taking this exam," saying this he came forward and started distributing a small pile of paper to every person in the class "This test will mostly focus on your reading and writing fluency, history, application of physics and Geography, you will have two hours from the time I sit down at the front of the class, anyone suspected of cheating will be automatically ejected into this years classes. When you have finished this exam there will be a follow up exam where we will test your fitness, stamina and taijutsu abilities. That is all. Begin." He finished taking a seat in front of a desk at the front of the room facing us.

I looked down at the exam and took a moment to quickly flip through the pages and grinned, though it wouldn't do to be overconfident the contents of this exam were, literally I guess, child's play, I already could read and write and had knowledge of physics remaining from my last life and everything remaining was not outside the knowledge that I gained reading the textbooks back at the orphanage.

Ready to take the exam I turned to page one and started writing.

* * *

I finished the exam with plenty of time to spare, I looked over my answers a second time to be sure I didn't mess any of the answers up and then used the remaining half hour to observe the group of children that were performing spars outside, many of them seemed to use the same style, a somewhat basic one that utilised quick open handed blows and flexibility on the defensive, unfortunately there was little I could take from such a style as it was almost the antithesis of mine.

Eventually the exam ended and the proctor recovered our tests before another adult came in and guided us outside.

"Your first task is to run laps around the grounds, I'll let you know when to stop, you start when I say 'go'" I was somewhat concerned as we took our place on a starting line that he hadn't given us any indication of how far we were supposed to run, how were we supposed to pace ourselves otherwise? I didn't have much time to think about it though for moments later he had us start.

With no idea of the pace to set I resolved to stay next to Kakashi who handily turned out to be the pack leader, he looked at me in acknowledgement before looking ahead again, for the first few laps I kept up fine but I rapidly began to learn that all of my training hadn't included stamina training like this, something which I resolved to fix in the future but didn't help for the moment.

After around 15 minutes I was taking deep breaths of air but I was still keeping up with Kakashi who seemed to be bothered by something as he kept looking in my direction. After another 5 minutes I realised I had begun to reach my limit and could no longer keep up with Kakashi and started to slow slightly though I didn't feel too bad as the rest of the field were long behind us by now, Kakashi surprisingly followed me as I slowed and eventually what seemed to bother him could not be contained anymore.

"Why are you handicapping yourself?" He asked, no more out of breath as he would be taking a brisk walk.

"What… do you mean?" I said between gulps of air

"You aren't using your chakra at all, why?" At my confused expression, he nearly tripped, "Wait, you do know how to access your chakra right?" I nodded "Well send it to your muscles to support them, it doesn't take much and at the moment the only thing your using to sustain them is the energy afforded by your blood, I've only ever heard of extremists training the way you are now."

I frowned to myself as I channeled additional slivers of chakra through my body to my legs and was astounded at the immediate impact, my burning chest alleviated, I was no longer taking in great gasps of air and my legs which felt like they were being pressed in some kind of vice suddenly felt as if they hadn't gone further than a few hundred meters. I grinned, somewhat in astonishment again of what chakra can do in this world, I had been running at a steady pace for going on 20 minutes and I suddenly felt as if I could go for another hour.

I looked to Kakashi and nodded my thanks to him which he ignored as he looked ahead and sped up again and I followed.

* * *

The exercise ended almost 45 minutes later, many of the students had dropped to a crawl and had been lapped by some of us one or two student had stopped resigning themselves around 40 minutes in, myself and Kakashi were both still out in front. The next task we were given was pull ups which we were told to continue doing until specified otherwise, this did not last as long as the laps of the grounds, after 5 minutes half had already given up and it seemed even Kakashi was beginning to struggle, for me though this was my element and I practiced doing these for sometimes 30 minutes a day anyway, that with the combination of chakra suffusing my muscles meant I wasn't even breaking a sweat.

After 10 minutes it was just me and Kakashi remaining and he was really beginning to struggle, honestly I was impressed, it seemed his build was more suited to speed than strength and to have gone on for so long past everyone else was remarkable. Eventually though at the 15 minute mark he gave up and I continued for another 5 before the proctor called off the test seeing as he saw I wasn't going to be tiring anytime soon. He then allowed us a half hour break before we were to take our final test where we would spar against each other.

* * *

I had forgotten to bring lunch that day so I found a shady tree to sit under and watched everyone else, I was joined by Kakashi after a few minutes though. He sat down next to me in the shade.

After a time of silence he asked "What family are you from?"

I smiled and said, "I don't know, I'm an orphan. My father might still be alive but I know my mother is dead."

Kakashi scrutinised me for a moment before quietly saying "Sorry."

I shook my head dismissing his apology "It's no problem, it's the way it has always been for me, if you let every circumstance of your birth define you there'd be no room for you to define yourself."

Kakashi nodded absentmindedly before opening his bento box, after getting halfway through however he realised I had no lunch. After a few, adorable, torn moments I admit I took some pleasure in watching him struggle through he offered me some of his Onigiri. I accepted them with thanks.

"Wow these are amazing," I said "Did you make these?"

Kakashi shook his head "My father made them, he's a good cook and one of the best ninja in the village!" He exclaimed in a rare moment of enthusiasm.

"One of the best? That's amazing, does he teach you at all?" I asked

"He did, but I practice on my own more often now. You'll have probably heard of him." He said proudly.

"I don't know, I only arrived here 8 months ago and I've not been able to explore the village much." I said grimacing.

"Oh? His name is Sakumo." He informed me.

My mind flashed back to the first day I had spent in the village to the ninja who had been speaking to Minato "I do know him! I met him when I first came to the village!" I said excitedly

"Really, he hasn't mentioned you. And you're pretty talented so he should have said something."

I brushed off Kakashi's suspicions saying "It was only once on the day I first came to the village, I haven't been into the village since then because of it being dangerous."

Kakashi frowned "Dangerous, wha-" but he got no further as the proctor blew his whistle indicating lunch was over and our group began to congregate on one side of the academy grounds where I had seen other students sparring earlier.

* * *

Watching the Clan children spar was interesting, there were 2 main clans, one all wore clothes with a red fan on them and the other wore pastel coloured clothes and were most remarkable for their eyes which were a light lavender, Kakashi explained to me this was due to an ability they were born with that allowed them to see all of the tenketsu - the points through which chakra traveled - in the body.

Both of the two clans both trained in different taijutsu styles it seemed, the ones with the red fans I was told were called Uchihas and had a style that dealt with opponents attacks by intercepting them or bypassing them altogether to deliver an unexpected hit, many of them however did not have the reaction times required for such a style so were almost hampered by it. The other clan, the Hyuga, had an extremely precise style that as far as I could tell used pressure points, presumably tenketsu, to debilitate their opponents with swift pointed strikes.

More Hyuga won their matches than Uchiha, the ones who lost stood dejectedly off to the side, eventually it was time for my match, the last of the day, which to my surprise and the visible surprise of Kakashi was between the both of us.

* * *

Standing opposite Kakashi I mentally reviewed what I knew of him, smart beyond his years, son to a renowned ninja and fast both mentally and physically, not much to go on but I felt as if I might still have the upper hand considering my well practiced fighting style as well as my strength and height advantage.

We both initiated the seal of confrontation at the proctor's mark and then too quickly we were told to begin.

Kakashi wasted no time, jumping up into the air he performed a somersault and brought one leg down with all his weight, I parried that aside as it fell with one arm as I readied to punch with the other, taking a step back with one leg in order to increase the force behind it. Unfortunately it was too slow, by the time I had punched Kakashi had already ducked awkwardly onto his back having seen it coming, he used his lower position and my over extension to put a foot to my abdomen and throw me backwards over himself. I landed on my feet though and managed to turn just in time to block another kick, this time a roundhouse, with both arms. He hopped back after the kick analysing me, I allowed him the time to as I readied myself. After a few seconds he made up his mind to rush me and ran forwards and I did the same and saw him as we came close to closing rear back a hand for a punch, I responded by jumping and bringing back my own punch, I realised then though that I would need to be faster than before in order to get my fist to kakashi before he dodged, I pushed a small amount of chakra into my arm to accelerate the movement and at the same time Kakashi punched so did I and our fists collided.

My fist however met little resistance, to my horror as my fist hit Kakashi's I saw his knuckles splinter and then his arm buckle, broken.

The proctor called the match immediately and what little I could see of Kakashi's face drained itself of blood at the sight of his arm. I had just ruined his entire career. The guilt consumed me almost immediately and I stood rooted to the floor.

"... Keiko… Keiko!"

I came back to awareness at the proctor shouting my name and I turned to him

"Get Kakashi to the hospital, you did the damage so it's your responsibility, everyone return the day after tomorrow for your results"

I nodded silently, somewhat shocked the proctor wasn't more concerned and turned to Kakashi.

"Will you be OK to walk?" I asked

He rolled his eyes, still in obvious pain, "There's nothing wrong with my legs is there."

I nodded not wanting to anger him any further, I already felt guilty enough, and we departed for the hospital, Kakashi leading the way since I did not know where it was myself.

* * *

I had always hated hospitals and this was no exception, the white walls and shining floors only looked more alien in this setting. Getting the attention of someone at the reception desk proved difficult as there was no one manning the desk. After a few minutes of waiting during which we tried to flag down nurses who rushed past to other destinations eventually a blonde woman not wearing the usual nurse garb but instead dressed in a green haori with a grey blouse seemed to take pity upon seeing Kakashi's injury.

"How did you manage this, you don't look old enough to be academy students yet?" she demanded, I wilted under her gaze and replied that it was a sparring accident.

"Don't they teach you kids anything anymore?" she sighed and looked down at some papers she was holding before saying "Head to the 3rd floor, room 12A, I'll be there in 5" so saying she disappeared into the throng of bustling hospital workers.

* * *

"I am so sorry Kakashi"

We were waiting in the room the nurse had directed us to. It was, I think, supposed to have been an office once upon a time. Now however books lined the floor and vials and test tubes containing various substances sat on the desk and shelves, a strong smell of antiseptic clung to the room.

"Don't worry about it" he replied, he was holding his arm in such a way as he didn't have to look at it and I didn't blame him, there were fingers that looked like they were being held together only by tendons and both sides of his arm had splinters of bone sticking through the flesh.

I grew a little frustrated that he was just playing this off like it was a scratch, I'd noticed Kakashi was a play it cool kind of person but this was crazy "Don't worry about it? How are you not worried, what are you going to do?" I exclaimed

Kakashi looked at me bewildered "get it fixed, it's not like it's a mortal injury."

I looked at him for a loss for a moment and then decided he must be in shock. It makes sense, that much trauma and pain, the idea of losing his chance at a career he showed promise for.

We sat there for another few minutes in a silence punctuated only by the occasional sound of blood dripping from Kakashi onto the floor before the nurse from before came in.

"Alright, I've got a few minutes spare let's get this over with" she said brusquely

I stood up and said "This is Kakashi i accidentally broke his arm"

The nurse rolled her eyes "I'm tsunade and you must be captain obvious. Here bite down on this, we usually anesthetise for these kind of breaks but we're running low so you'll have to deal with the pain" she handed Kakashi a piece of rubber tubing and gestured him to lay his arm on the desk.

I was kind of bewildered, was she going to operate on his arm whilst he was still conscious, I wasn't even sure the arm was recoverable and had assumed there would be some amputation needed.

Tsunade placed her hands above his arm and her hands glowed a light blue, as if she was channeling chakra but the colour was slightly different and then it started.

Kakashi whimpered and bit down harshly on the rubber tubing as the shards of bone sticking out of his arm shot back in, a few moments later the lumps of what appeared to be broken bones pushing against his flesh disappeared and with a grinding snap his arm straightened out, at this Kakashi nearly collapsed and I stepped in to hold him up.

Tsunade then moved her hands to his mangled hand and the same process repeated itself, bones hanging by tendons drew in towards the hand, straightened themselves and the skin knit itself together. By the end Kakashi was whiter than when I broke his arm and visibly sweating.

Tsunade finished by placing his arm in a sling and telling him not to use it for 2 weeks before dismissing him. 2 weeks. For an injury I considered life altering. Once again I've been blindsided by the possibilities of chakra, once I started proper at the academy I decided I would make it my goal to learn everything I could about it.

I made to leave but was stopped by Tsunade, "Wait a minute, you've got some explaining to do." She said holding me back by my hair.

I turned back to Tsunade, "I really am sorry, I didn't plan for it to happen, it's honestly the first time I've been in a spare with someone my age"

Tsunade waved her hand "I don't care about that, why are you styling yourself after Jiraiya?"

'Who's Jiraiya?' I thought "I don't know what you mean I didn't really even think I had a style." I joked

Tsunade seemed to lose her patience, "don't give me that I'm talking about this makeup" she reached out and rubbed my temple, then paused in confusion.

"I'm not sure what you're looking for but I was born with those as far as I'm aware" I said, inching towards the door whilst she was distracted

Suddenly her expression cleared "Kid, who are your parents?"

"I'm an orphan, I don't know who they are." I had made it to the door handle

Anger passed across her features briefly before she nodded "Never mind, I'm busy, get going." so saying she pushed me out though I yelped on my way. It really felt like she had stuck me with a needle.

* * *

"That bastard" Tsunade seethed "I can't believe he could be so irresponsible." She was pacing her office with a piece of paper in her hand but paused when someone knocked on the door and came in.

"Tsunade- " A nurse began but was interrupted by Tsunade

"I'm running an errand Miku, I'll be back later today." Tsunade said as she brushed past Miku on the way out of the door.

* * *

The hokage was overlooking reports from the main front of the war when Tsunade walked in.

"Tsunade, to what do I owe the pleasure?" he said taking his eyes away from an updated map of the front.

"Is Jiraiya on his way back yet?" Tsunade asked, wasting no time

"I'm afraid I haven't had any correspondence at all from Jiraiya, you know how hard it is to get information out or Rain country." The hokage responded suspecting he already knew what this was about, he reached under his desk and surreptitiously activated the privacy seals for his office. "Would you like to tell me what this is about?"

"That idiot he-..." she cut herself off mid sentence and took up pacing, eventually she turned back to the Hokage "I just had an academy student in my hospital with a mane of white hair and red lines on his face, sound familiar? I took a blood sample to be sure and it came back positive, he's begotten a child and just left it. That child thinks he's an orphan, that he's alone! When I get a hold of him, well, I'll beat him senseless first, but then I'll make him take responsibility. I can't believe-" Tsunade stopped herself because she realised her sensei wasn't showing any indication of surprise, she pointed at him accusingly, "You knew!"

"I knew" He confirmed with a nod

"Then why doesn't he know he has a father, that he's not an orphan?" Tsunade demanded

"At this current time we are unable to be 100% sure about his allegiance. He says he came from a destroyed orphanage on the border with Kumo but we have the records from that orphanage and he is not present among their number. He shows abilities and a maturity far beyond his years and signs of possible abuse and prior training. Given all this I have chosen to keep his lineage a secret though Jiraiya will be informed on his return depending on the child's status at that time however he still may not be allowed to tell him." The hokage explained

"That child? He's as innocent as a duck, I could tell as soon as I met him there wasn't a malicious bone in his body" Tsunade protested.

Hiruzen shook his head "I cannot make decisions based on first impressions Tsunade, we have been observing him for 8 months and have judged he is trustworthy enough to be allowed to attend the academy and explore the village. We will see where it goes from here."

Tsunade looked at her teacher and realised that he wasn't going to change his mind on this so she shook her head and turned to leave.

"And Tsunade" Tsunade turned almost at the door "This is at least a grade A secret, I don't want anyone finding out about this that doesn't already"

Tsunade shrugged and held the paper with the test results aloft as she incinerated it with a quick fire jutsu before leaving.

* * *

Walking out of the hospital Kakashi turned to me and, walking backwards, asked "Do you want to come to my house for dinner?"

"Are you sure? You don't seem too upset considering I broke your arm. And regardless of how you feel your Dad might not be too happy with me" I replied.

"You worry about the stupidest things, we're ninja, I was bound to get a broken bone… or two, sooner or later." Kakashi complained "Besides you said you haven't seen my dad in 8 months, I'm sure he'll be wondering how you are."

So that's his game I chuckled inwardly, still don't believe me eh Kakashi, "In that case, sure I'd love to come. I don't really have anything better to wear than this though"

"Won't be a problem" he said grabbing my arm and tugging me away.

* * *

Kakashi's home was a simple affair, though deceptively large, he had pulled me through the door without ceremony before calling into the house "I'm home, I brought a friend"

"Oh?" Sakumo's head appeared in the hallway "Ah Ko isn't it? I haven't seen you in a while, will you be joining us for dinner?"

"If it's not too much trouble" I replied

"Nonsense, you know it's rare for Kakashi to find a friend, I remember…" Suddenly he saw kakashi's arm "What happened to your arm?"

I closed my eyes resigned "I'm afraid I broke it in a spar, I'm very sorry"

Sakumo was quiet for a few moments before he burst out into laughter "That will do it, Kakashi doesn't really like anyone that he can run rings around in a spar."

Kakashi crossed his arms "I am stood right here"

"Of course, sorry about that," Sakumo placated, "How about you set the table and I'll dish up dinner" he disappeared back into the kitchen "I hope you like unagi!" He called as he went.

Kakashi grimaced "sorry about that he's a bit… exuberant. Let's go set up for dinner"

I followed trying to hold in my laughter.

* * *

The food was amazing, the eel had been thoroughly deboned and served on a bed of rice, it fell apart in the mouth and had been covered in a tangy sweet sauce.

"That was amazing Sakumo!" I exclaimed, laying down my chopsticks, I grinned somewhat nervously realising I hadn't really said anything since we had begun eating.

"Well you won't be getting my recipe, it's a family secret" he joked smiling "Now tell me about this spar, its not often Kakashi Takes a loss especially to someone his own age"

I glance at Kakashi who took the prompt "There's not much to tell, to start with I was faster than Ko so whilst I thought he had the strength advantage I thought I could avoid his blows without too much trouble. Unfortunately though he didn't start off at full speed and during our 3rd engagement I launched a punch directly into his thinking I had time to land it on his shoulder before his followed through. I miscalculated" I shuddered, that was an understatement.

"And it broke your arm?" Sakumo asked

"Worse, it mangled it, my fingers were barely hanging on and I had multiple compound fractures in my arm" Kakashi's face paled a little at the memory even in the warm glow of his family's house.

Sakumo frowned "May I see your hands Ko?"

I shrugged and offered my hands over the table, Sakumo nodded looking at them "I see"

"What is it?" Kakashi asked

"Well let's put it this way, here's my hand," He placed his hand next to mine, "next to his, do you see any difference other than the size."

Kakashi looked for a moment before shaking his head

"Exactly. I've been a ninja for a long time, I've had time to grow my calluses through hard work and back breaking effort, I've fought in wars and Ko's hand with the exception of size look quite similar" He looked at me "Tell me Ko, how many hours a day do you spend punching training stumps without any hand protection"

"It used to be nearly 5 hours but I've reduced it lately" I replied abashed.

"I see, probably a good thing too. And you've never had a spar with another person your age have you?"

"No"

"Well your problem is you don't know your own strength" Sakumo laughed "That's easily fixed though, we'll head into the back yard and I'll show you."

I nodded, thinking back he was right, I had trained myself to hit inanimate objects with all of my strength without flinching, doing the same to an ordinary person in my old world might have been OK, but in this new one where I had the strength to lift trees? Perhaps not. We stood up but the moment we did there was a knock at the door.

"You kids go ahead, I'll see who it is" Sakumo said

Kakashi guided me outside into what I would call a state of the art training field, there were ranges for target practice, equipment for sword dueling, weight of every size and type and training stumps that seem to have been equipped with little wooden arms.

"Is this where you train?" I asked impressed

Kakashi nodded "I'm usually doing speed practice though."

"What does that involve?"

Kakashi pointed to a large pile of pebbles at one side of the field, "Basically my dad throws those stones at me and I try to dodge them."

"Oh, are you any good"

Kakashi seemed to drive back some memory behind his eyes "Not yet" he said at length.

At this point we could hear voices coming back through the house with Sakumo's hearty laughter ringing through at intervals, eventually they reached the back door and Minato revealed himself next to Kakashi's dad. My stomach sank. I was supposed to wait for Minato at the academy.

* * *

Luckily Minato didn't seem too put out I did wonder about something though.

"How did you know I was here?" I asked

"Well, er, I guess Sakumo is the only other ninja you had met so I just assumed this would be the place you'd be?" Minato replied, phrasing it like a question.

"Uh huh" I said skeptically

"It's true, what you think I can't track down a kid your age on my own?"

I stared at him with one eyebrow raised

"Sakumo help me he's being mean." Minato cried throwing his arms around Sakumo.

I let out a chuckle at that and so, surprisingly, did Kakashi. I decided seeing Sakumo so discomfited by having Minato around his neck was worth me dropping it.

"I was just going to teach Ko a little restraint" Sakumo said "He had a spar with my son earlier and threw a punch hard enough to result in multiple breaks."

Minato grew serious, his expression darkening slightly "Really? I thought I told you about not going out to hurt your comrades"

"Calm down Minato," Sakumo said, clapping him on the back "No harm done and it sounds like it was really an accident. You see Ko has never had to fight someone his age and he's been punching nothing but a tree stump for 8 months, we've just got to teach him to tone it down a little. Come over here Ko."

I walked over to where Sakumo indicated just in front of a large thick tree.

"OK now I want you to punch that tree as hard as you can." Sakumo said, I looked at him to check if he was sure and he nodded encouragingly.

I punched the tree and immediately knew something was wrong. Though my feet were planted I was still pushed backwards, the soil being pushed up in little troughs, and my arm felt like I had just punched solid iron, If I hadn't trained for the last 8 months I'm sure at the very least my knuckles would be broken, as it was my eyes watered at the pain.

Sakumo laughed seeing my shocked face "That, Ko, is one of the trees planted around Konoho by the first Hokage, it's pretty tough and nothing short of the sharpest axe is even going to make a dent, what happens instead is the energy is redirected back in the direction it came, all you need to do i just punch it soft enough that you don't feel any pain, don't worry whether you're punching too soft we'll let you know."

I nodded and began by delivering a punch so slow it almost felt in slow motion and built up from there, over the next half hour Sakumo indicated each time whether I could punch harder and eventually I reached a point where each punch resulted in a solid thump and I realised I was feeling some jarring in my arm. I tested a few more punches at just below that point before Sakumo nodded.

"You seem to have gotten the trick of it, just make sure next time you're in a spar that's all the strength you use, it's all you need for a friendly match. It'll be hard at first building up speed without increasing the strength of your punch but it will become second nature very quickly. Attacking an enemy in the field is different, feel free to punch through their abdomen but not a fellow Konoha Shinobi."

Minato chose that moment to speak up, "Well I think that's enough for one day. Kakashi would you mind showing Ko back to where he lives, he lives in the house next to mine" Kakashi nodded and we walked back through the house after I offered my thanks to Sakumo.

* * *

"Think your son will be OK?" Minato asked "I'm sorry by the way, I should have been keeping an eye on him when he was training I could have stopped this before it happened."

Sakumo dismissed his apology with a shake of his head, "No need to apologise, Kakashi has broken bones before, no harm done. The real question is who is that boy Minato, when I last saw him you told me he was an orphan and I took you at your word but seeing him now I know that can't be right, to say nothing of his shinobi capabilities - I couldn't break another kids hand and arm with a punch when I was 4 - his looks give him away too much."

Minato looked uncomfortable "I can't tell you anything Sakumo, you need to speak to the Hokage about this"

Sakumo looked at Minato for a few moments before taking a breath, "I suppose you're right. I hate village politics, this is why I never took the clan's seat on the council"

"We only have the best interests of the village at heart Sakumo" Minato said.

"Of course you do" Sakumo replied.

After that the conversation fell into silence, both men looking absentmindedly at the small indent Ko had left on the tree. At length Minato said his goodbyes and Sakumo waved him off. Sakumo could already tell who the child's father was, he didn't need Minato to tell him but seeing his reaction to his questions only confirmed it.

After Minato left Sakumo walked back to the tree and his eyes widened before he let out a choked laugh, "That kid is going to be some monster when he grows up." he said running his hands along the back of the tree and up the fissure of split wood that zig-zagged up the trunk and out of sight.

* * *

AN: Well I tried for 10,000 words but it seems that's a bit much doing it in my spare time. Still the second longest chapter so far. Hope you enjoy. See you in the next chapter.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

* * *

The next day Minato departed for his mission and I got to say goodbye to him from the gates of konoha for the first time, before he left he ruffled my hair and left me with the advice to be more careful with my friends.

I spent the rest of the day practicing my accuracy with thrown weapons such as kunai and shuriken, seeing Kakashi's training ground yesterday had really reminded me that I had largely ignored this discipline and I was awful. Really awful. I remembered the proper technique to throwing them, the muscle memory was still there but I was beginning to realise there were too many differences between this body and my old one for this skill to carry over without significant adjustment. Throwing didn't begin in the hand it began in the shoulder and then the elbow and then the wrist before the hand let go at the opportune time and there just too many variables that had been changed for me to throw as accurately as I was used to.

After a few hours with little improvement I decided to take a break and head back inside for some lunch. I stepped inside my house and -

"KeiImissedyousomuchyoudon'tevenknowwanttogetramen?"

The world had taken on a strange hue and my vision had somewhat narrowed in just the brief moments I had been spun. I had heard Kushina say something phrased somewhat like a question but I hadn't even pieced together the first few words before I said "huh" utterly nonplussed.

"Great let's go, you've never eaten at ichiraku ramen have you? You'll love it."

I groaned from my new position under one arm, Kushina kicked open my door and leaped towards the village.

"You really need to stop growing Kei, you're getting too big to be carried"

* * *

Kushina introduced me when we arrived to the owners of the ramen stall a man called Teuchi and a woman sat towards the back of the stall heavily pregnant. The stall had apparently been a staple of Konoha for over a decade, it was well deserved though Kushina seemed to have enough enthusiasm for 10.

"So," Kushina began, laying down her 6th bowl, "what happened whilst I was away?"

"I started at the academy" I began, "though I've not actually had any classes yet they've just tested us to see if we're advanced enough to be moved up."

"You're too smart for your own good" Kushina said poking me with a chopstick "did you make any friends?"

"Just one, Kakashi, I had dinner at his house yesterday, his dad even taught me how to regulate how much strength I use in a spar"

"Oh, why would you need a lesson like that" Kushina said from within her 7th bowl

"I kinda broke every bone in Kakashi's arm in a spar" I said sheepishly.

Kushina choked on the broth and put down her bowl, after recovering from her coughing fit she started laughing as hard as I had ever seen her laugh "and you made friends with him" she snorted between fits of laughter, "Kei, you're golden"

I took the opportunity to hide my reddening face in my own ramen bowl and soon after I finished I turned back to Kushina "Also I'm on level 2"

"Level 2?..." Suddenly her mind made the connection and she grew somehow more animated "Kei that's incredible, I thought you'd be on level one until you finished at the academy, I'm going to have to really step up your training"

'No kidding' I thought, she hasn't given a lesson in months. "I am having some trouble with the puzzle for level 3, maybe you could help with that."

"'Some trouble' he says" Kushina muttered "Kei I wouldn't expect you to even come close to level 3 until you were at least chunin"

"Well I aim to at least meet expectations." I joked "I think I've almost exhausted the scrolls I have available and I don't think I'm any closer to figuring it out." Some of my frustration came through in my voice

"Kei, look at me" Kushina said, obligingly I looked up from my ramen bowl "You don't need to push yourself so hard, you've got years to figure this out. But, since you're so enthusiastic, I'll give you some pointers at our next lesson." She saw my excited face and held up a finger "If. You're telling the truth about studying the scrolls you have access to. There will be a test." She grinned maniacally.

Another test. I let my head hit the countertop and Kushina laughed before digging in to her 8th bowl.

* * *

Arriving at the academy the next day I wandered into the building with a throng of other children unsure where to go but quickly found a signpost with directions for students that had taken exams which led to the same room we had taken the exam in the previous day. It was already half full with the Hyuga all present and many of the Uchiha too, I spotted Kakashi in a seat towards the front still sporting his arm in a sling and took a seat next to him.

"You still didn't change your clothes then" he said

"I figure if someone is going to judge me for my fashion sense they're not really someone I'd like to know anyway" I replied "Besides, like you said, it'll make no difference with some people"

Kakashi nodded and made no reply.

After a few minutes the proctor from the exam walked in and looked around "it seems some haven't yet shown up but it makes no difference, everyone with the exception of Hatake Kakashi and Keiko is dismissed, please go to room 3A where you will be disseminated between the first years." There was some grumbling at this but the proctors face meant business so eventually they filed out, once they had he turned back to me and Kakashi "You two follow me, you will be joining this year's graduating class"

As we followed the proctor through the school I said to Kakashi "The graduating class? Aren't they 5 years older?"

Kakashi shrugged "They must think we're ready or they wouldn't have moved us up."

I nodded but in the back of my head I could hear Minato talking about getting sent to the front line, no better than cannon fodder. For a moment I considered turning down the accelerated promotion. It would be the pragmatic choice, the war might be over by the time I graduate. I shook my head. If Kakashi was taking the class so would I, he was my only friend so far and I wouldn't leave him.

* * *

Introducing ourselves to the class was… awkward. It was clear by the glares that they didn't think we deserved a place, we introduced ourselves at our teachers behest and hastily found a seat. It seemed by the time classes reach the final year the class size dwindles significantly, only around 70% of desks were occupied so Kakashi and I were able to sit together at a desk near the back.

"OK, most of you already know who I am but for any newcomers I am Saku Sarutobi, for many of you this will be your final year at the academy, we will spend most of these first few months learning the basic ninjutsu required to become a genin, after that we will touch on genjutsu and some other speciality areas. We will be sparring once a week and there will be an exam every 4 weeks. Any questions."

There were none. This man commanded respect, his tone was clipped and his eyes unflinching, that he was a Sarutobi did not surprise me, it seemed this clan bred natural born leaders. Looking around and seeing that there was nothing more he sent us outside to spar.

* * *

"You will now draw lots to spar against each other. Your performance in these spars will form a large part of your grade." Saku announced once we were outside, "Hatake Kakashi and Keiko, you will be sparring with me, you may have passed the exam to qualify for this class but it's up to me to decide if you're ready. I can see you're injured Kakashi so we will delay yours until you're fit to spar again."

Kakashi and I shared a glance though a large amount of our initial anxiety bled away watching the first few spars. They were decent enough but they were nowhere near as polished as Kakashi and myself.

Eventually the time for me to spar came and I stepped up in front of our teacher and showed the seal of confrontation which he mirrored and then we began.

He didn't strike straight away, he seemed to be waiting for me to make the first move, I took a moment to analyse his stance. He had lowered his center of gravity by crouching slightly and had one arm crossing his chest with the other stretched downwards. A strong stable stance it seemed. I decided I would be better trying to keep at range against him, being drawn in would probably result in a grapple and I wasn't confident I could overpower him.

I began my assault the with a swift punch, aiming for his abdomen, I sent some chakra to my muscles to speed up my movements noting that I would need to practice in future to make sure that such actions became second nature, I drew back my punch before impact to make sure I didn't strike with the strength I did against Kakashi and Saku caught it with his hand though he flinched still at the force behind it. I made to pull away but noticed he had my fist held fast, grinning he sent out a sweeping kick intended to drive me down to the floor where he could easily pin me. A flash of shock crossed his eyes when I grinned back.

Jumping up so that my body ran parallel to the ground I used both legs to kick his head, I was more than strong enough to stay there with my weight supported by my hand but after the first kick drew a satisfying thud to his head he let go and shuffled back.

I withdrew as well, it wouldn't do to get overconfident and he had still held his stance so he wasn't yet off balance. This time though it looked like he wanted to bring the fight to me, he leapt forward landing in his crouched stance in front of me, he shot out a fist to punch my shoulder but I managed to knock it off target with a punch of my own to his forearm, he was too close though and it was only a matter of time before he tried to entrap me in a hold.

As if he read my mind before I could recover from deflecting his punch he shot out his other arm to the same shoulder but instead of a punch he held my shoulder locked in his hand, his arm now crossed between our bodies holding us together yet separate, not ideal at all for me, he then shifted his leg so that it locked behind both of mine, still somehow holding himself in his crab like stance, he planned to use the leverage from his arms grip to force me to the ground.

With my options limited I decided a dual fisted hit on his torso would best force him back and in the moments he began to struggle to lever me down I struck with both hands directly to his torso. He certainly moved backwards and not without injury if his grunt was any indication but he never lost his balance his feet merely slid in the dust with my legs being brought with him, I finished the fight face up in the dust and the proctor for the match called it as I had been the first to fall.

* * *

I lost the spar but I never really expected that I could win, tall I might be for a 4 year old but I was still a 4 year old against a full grown adult. What was more important to me is that I learned something that I hadn't considered since before I was reborn in this body and that was my stance. I was much shorter now than I had been and had been holding myself in the stance of a much stronger and taller man as a result, even though he had likely never seen a fighting style similar to mine I've no doubt our teacher with his experience had immediately seen the flaw. In the weeks that followed in practice and in spars I made sure to adjust how I stood accordingly until it became second nature, it really made me worry that perhaps there were other things I hadn't considered but until I encountered a problem it was impossible for me to know what I didn't know. Our teacher marked the modification I had made at the very next spar I had against another child from the same class, he didn't say anything - Saku was rare to give out compliments - but he nodded approvingly to me afterwards.

Kakashi's spar against Saku lasted almost as long as mine, partly because he moved so fast it took a few attempts for Saku to pin him down, once he did though Kakashi resigned knowing he couldn't win in a head on battle, I did see a change in Kakashi's training also from that day though, on evenings when I would sometimes come to his house to train together he no longer trained purely to increase his speed and agility and was even seen to be lifting weights on some occasions.

It was around a week after Kakashi's spar that Saku finally released the standings for the class so we could see how we ranked against each other.

* * *

I met Kakashi at his house on the way to the academy, it turns out that his house was actually more or less on the way. When we arrived at our class we found the front was thronged with people with the few not at the front giving us newfound looks of appraisal. I didn't give it much thought, in the few weeks I had been in the class no-one had taken the opportunity to even try to talk to me and the attempts I had made had resulted in extremely one sided conversation.

Being smaller than the rest of the class actually made it easier to cut in between people to get to the front to see the paper stapled to the wall with the class standings and when we did Kakashi and I both blinked in shock.

We were both top of the class, Kakashi was ahead of me, in the few genjutsu lessons we had had he had been much better at it than me but Saku had told me that my chakra reserves were abnormally high for someone my age, equal to some Jounin he had said which will result in me finding tasks that require more delicate chakra control more difficult no matter how much I practice chakra exercises, it was disappointing and not a problem I was used to encountering, usually if there was a skill I struggled with I just practiced until it became easier, to hear this was something I would always struggle with was gutting in a way and what was more he told me it would also mean there would be very few medical ninjutsu I could perform due to the control required. To have seen Tsunade perform that healing on Kakashi and now know I'd never be capable of such wonders myself was frustrating to say the least.

Saku went on to tell me something else however. In the weeks I had been attending the class he had noticed it had been steadily growing at rate he's never seen, apparently Saku was an extremely well trained sensor and could detect the chakra levels of anyone in the vicinity. He informed me that normally he would tell students with as much chakra as I had that they should look in future to being more of a ninjutsu specialist but considering my already existing talent in taijutsu it wouldn't be a problem to concentrate on those two areas.

So Kakashi has edged me out with his score from the genjutsu lessons but I knew he wouldn't care too much about that because he still hadn't beaten me in a spar and he did not like losing.

* * *

When I arrived home that I evening I found Kushina waiting for me.

"Ready for a test" she said

"How did you even get in?" I asked

"I'm a ninja" she replied

It was a fair enough reply, lock-picking was one of the first things they covered in the textbooks at the academy. I sat down at the table across from her and saw that instead of any kind of written exams on the table was scroll after scroll of seals.

"I made all of these the other day, some of them aren't complete, some of them have been completed incorrectly and you will need to make it work and some of these aren't even seals but you will need to take whats on the scroll and incorporate it into a seal." she explained.

That seemed straightforward.. With the exception of the last but before I could ask any questions Kushina rose from her place at the table.

"I'll leave you to it, I'll be back tomorrow to see what progress you have made, I've locked the bookcase down so there'll be no cheating. Good luck." she close the door behind her leaving me to the scrolls.

I put my head in my hands and groaned

* * *

The first few seals were simple uncompleted low level seals such as storage seals, from there though the difficulty rapidly increased, there were some seals that seemed to have been intended to be destructive in nature but after close analysis they turned out to be seals designed to clean surgical equipment or to remove moisture from items sealed within, I came across seals that had purposes that were ridiculously simple like one desire to store small items the size of a brush and other ones later that had purposes so esoteric that without a general idea of how the seal was to come together I would have had no clue what it's purpose one, some of these seemed to be designed to seal away such things as sound or chakra and then later still there was one that was designed to seal away certain ideas. This test definitely gave me an increased respect for fuinjutsu, the power to seal away an idea was almost too powerful, I now understood why there were so few practitioners after all I could easily see the possibilities if you could seal away a thought or idea, how difficult might it be to unleash a thought or idea upon a person.

Through the night I worked and by the time the first light had appeared in the morning sky I had gotten to the final category Kushina described and felt like I had finally lost my mind for in my sleep deprived mind having worked through a medley of seals and with designs dancing through my head I could see designs appearing unbidden upon the scrolls to match the few odd marks that had been placed there, designs I had never seen sprung forth from my brush, I'm sure even as I put brush to paper on many of the seals I did not properly understand what my intention for the purpose of the seal was.

When at last it was morning I rose from the table, staggered sleepily to my waiting futon and was asleep before my body struck the ground.

I awoke some hours later to the sound of excited squealing.

* * *

AN: Back to about the normal length, I hope you enjoy, I might not be able to post another for a few days but until then. See you in the next chapter.

Bonus round: Review responses!

So the main few things I've seen to respond to is why didn't Keiko just show Minato/someone his file. Well the answer is he was a bit morose at the time finding out his mother was dead and stuff and he just threw it onto the remaining fires from the orphanage a stupid decision in hindsight but how was he to know that was literally the only record of him being a registered citizen of the land of fire, they did ask some of the orphans if they remembered him and they got mixed answers, some were young so couldn't remember too much, some didn't like Keiko because he was different so renounced all knowledge of him and the matron died in the fire. I think most of this stuff is in the first chapter or Keiko's file later on. Minato didn't see the file as he showed up a few minutes late and the only files he brought back were the ones still in the cabinet and Keiko didn't even bring back the clothes off his back because they were covered in blood and burnt.

Also someone had a concern that Keiko's journal/book would be translated and used against him at some point, I don't want to give much away but I can say you don't have to worry about that... probably. It is at least not my intention for that to happen right now and I think for it to happen some really weird stuff would have to be introduced. So no, they're just going to be a bit suspicious because as far as they can tell Keiko is writing in tongues haha.

Oh and there was another person that had an idea about him growing up away from konoha with the Ame orphans, that actually got an idea going in my brain but I'll probably only get to it after this one is done (If I'm not yet thoroughly ashamed at my inability to write by then) so at least there's that to look forward to.

Everyone else thank you for the reviews, I've decided to read them after all.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

* * *

"What day is it" I yawned stepping out of my bedroom.

Kushina looked up from her examination of seals and in a blur of red crushed me in a hug "Today is the day, little Kei, that I pronounce you a seal master," She cooed, "At least by Konoha standards."

"Seal master? But I'm 4." I squeaked from the depths of the hug.

She released me and held me at arm's length, joy radiating from her eyes "That doesn't matter, you now have the knowledge to create your own seals." At my confused look she took a step back and muttered "Perhaps it would be best to start from the beginning," she nodded her head as if making up her mind and guided me to the table to sit down.

"The history of seals is pretty much the history of the Uzumaki tribe," she sat across from me looking as serious as I had ever seen her, "We were around before the villages were created and even had an ancestral home which started to be known as a village when the system of villages was introduced. It was called Uzushiogakure. For as far as our history goes back we traded in seals, they were our craft and it was from us that the villages first gained their knowledge in the art of fuinjutsu." I nodded urging her to go on.

"We were the most advanced practitioners of fuinjutsu until around 5 years ago when the village was attacked, put under siege and ultimately destroyed by a coalition of other villages." Kushina looked uncomfortable coming to the end of that and I suddenly remembered, she was called Uzumaki, this was her family, her village. She took a moment to get control of herself.

"I… I escaped that village to come here just before this happened. As a result I am the living legacy of the Uzumaki clan and all of those scrolls on your shelves were written by me." My eyes widened in shock, "Now. There was some information lost. Actually more than some. But I was obsessed with fuinjutsu even as a small child and I practically lived in the library. As a result I have taken what I know and created the 5 fuinjutsu grades you have been working to attain." Here she finally cracked a smile "But. The total sum knowledge of fuinjutsu in Konoha only comes to grade 2, everything beyond that is beyond what Konoha would define as a seal master," she gestured to the scrolls I had worked on now "these scrolls were part of a test I was trying to recreate from my home village, given to promising young practitioners it put what people had learned to the test and showed what they could do when actually applying that knowledge. Most 'seal experts'" she put air quotes around those words derisively, "learn as far as grade 2 and are capable of making simple seals for the most part with one or two more advanced ones if they were really dedicated. Almost all of them though are just applying rote knowledge, they don't truly understand seals. This test," she patted the scrolls to punctuate her words "was designed to test your understanding and you have passed Kei, once again with flying colours." She sat back smiling.

"But… I don't feel like I know anything more than yesterday." I said raising an eyebrow

Kushina laughed "have you seen some of the seals you created? No nevermind, come over here." she dragged me over to the bookcase which was now unlocked again to level 2, "Take a look at the test again for level 3, do you see now?"

And I did see. Where the seal seemed a random fresco of different nodes and elements and matrixes it now fell together as if it was always meant to be that way and I realised that the only part was missing was an area in the middle which I could intrinsically tell required my name.

I grabbed a brush from the table and quickly wrote my name into the seal, when the final line had been completed my name disappeared and the seal glowed as if activated and then something unexpected happened.

The seal started crawling up the brush a bit at a time and when it reached my hand it transferred onto me, there was no pain, and there was no question of the trust I held in Kushina so I was not worried about this turn of events.

Crawling steadily up to my forearm it eventually stopped there and I could finally pull my hand away from the brush.

I examined my forearm where an intricate seal now displayed itself. For all it's intricacy though it did nothing as far as I could tell. When I told Kushina she nodded and pushed up her sleeve next to mine to display the same mark.

"It's the mark of a true seal master. It will afford you entrance to many places such as the daimyos court when shown" I grinned at Kushina and she returned it.

"I guess this makes me an Uzumaki now doesn't it" I said, it was the least I could do considering I wasn't allowed to call her sensei and I was keenly aware of how alone the world could feel when your connections to it were cut away.

Kushina though looked a bit upset and I tried to backtrack "Of course I won't take your name if you don't want -"

I was cut off my another crippling hug "Thank you Keiko" she said into my shoulder, I could feel hot tears dripping onto my skin "... Keiko Uzumaki."

* * *

We went out that day to Ichiraku ramen to celebrate, here Kushina went on to explain that the only seal master in Konoha that could pass that test was Minato's sensei. Minato himself probably came close but he had chosen to focus on a very specific branch of the art so would never be able to advance as far as a real practitioner, genius as he was with what he had learned.

Whilst we were there we realised that Tuechi's wife was missing, when we asked Tuechi he looked torn.

"She gave birth yesterday," he announced, "she wanted to call her Ayame but she… she's not doing too well. I spent the whole night at the hospital and I couldn't take pacing the floor anymore so I came here to cook. Keep busy." He nodded that last to himself.

"Oh Tuechi…" Kushina trailed off. It was a tough situation and there wasn't much that could be said.

"It'll be OK Kushina," he said "it'll be ok... I need to get some stuff from the back. I'll be right back"

Kushina and I grimaced at each other. We both knew Tuechi was at hard times as it was, with the war on few ate out at restaurants these days and the cost of supplies had gone up because of the difficulty of safely delivering goods with the increased presence of bandits.

Kushina opened her purse to pay and brought out a 10,000 ryo bill, almost ten times the cost of what we'd ordered and seeing a smile and a nod from me took another out, grinning she placed them in an envelope and reaching over the counter left them on Tuechi's work surface.

Kushina then greedily finished her bowl and with a childish giggle we were away.

* * *

According to Kushina now that I had reached the level I had in fuinjutsu I had to register myself at the Konoha central administration building. Really it was just a department within the hokage tower.

After being guided through a labyrinth of twists and turns we arrived at a small desk where a sleepy looking chunin was sorting files.

"Hello, we're here to register a new sealmaster." Kushina said

The chunin looked up, saw Kushina, then looked back down and began sorting files again saying "You're already registered Kushina, you have been for some time" she yawned before pushing her glasses back up her nose.

"Not me!" Kushina exclaimed, before grabbing me and lifting me aloft to the chunin's face, "Keiko"

I blinked twice in the ninjas face until she looked back down and sighed, "Well the sole requirement of an existing sealmaster to validate the claim has been passed, any last name kid?"

I looked back at Kushina and at her nod said "it's Uzumaki"

"Hmmm can't find another Uzumaki" she drawled. Looking through a cabinet, a moment later she said "Found Keiko though. Must be a mistake, want me to change it whilst we're here?" At my nod she she started making some changes to the files she had giving me a smile so quick I almost thought I imagined it.

"Well that all appears to be in order, I have the rest of your details here so I'll just use them to complete the rest of the paperwork. Oh my name is Yoshino Nara by the way" she added her introduction to me almost as an afterthought.

"Thank you Yoshino." Kushina said as she whisked me away.

"That was easy. That woman sure seemed tired though." I said

"She's a Nara, they're all like that, scary smart though. You should see her around the guy she's engaged to though, pretty scary."

I nodded, "Hey Kushina, could you put me down yet"

"Never!" she proclaimed.

* * *

From there my life seemed to find a rhythm, I kept up my own training as I always had, concentrating in other areas as necessary. I learned early on in the year that as academy students we had access to some parts of the shinobi library which I abused to read everything I could about chakra.

My training with fuinjutsu continued though the complexity of the subject had shot sky high since I unlocked grade 3, many of the scrolls had nothing written on them but seals since Japanese lacked the ability to convey the concepts they were trying to communicate, it kind of reminded me of languages from my old life where there was no way to translate certain words into other languages without losing some of the meaning but this went further, these were entire concepts and ideas that when I came to think of them in my head they were simply represented by images of seals since I knew no way to put meaning to them otherwise.

I didn't lose another spar at the academy and Kakashi only lost when put against me to his increasing irritation. We both excelled with the ninjutsu we were taught at school, they were called 'the academy three' and we more or less had them down after a week of practice. Minato still hasn't returned from his mission and judging by the way Kushina kept looking off to the gates of the village I was beginning to suspect he might not have been entirely honest when he said he wouldn't be at the front lines.

Six months into the academy year Kakashi and i were training at a public training ground when Guy made, or perhaps I should say forced, his way into our lives.

* * *

We had started using public training grounds more often as our spars escalated. We had realised that sustained use of a particular training ground was leaving it scarred and damaged.

Today we were using one at the village's edge to spar and were taking a break under the shade of a nearby tree when a boy our age fell from the sky, landing in a lump perhaps 30 metres away.

"HAHAHA" he shouted, "THE FLAMES OF MY YOUTH CANNOT BE CONTAINED BY A HOSPITAL!"

Kakashi and I looked at each other, him likely wondering the same as I what kind of hospital this guy came from. We hesitated too long however as he spotted us and made his way over. The question of the kind of hospital he came from was at least answered in view of him wearing a bandage on his head, having his arm in a sling and his slight limp but despite all these things he walked with an energy that felt like he could make his way through any obstacle put in front of him.

"Hello," he said drawing closer. It was at this point I realised that he didn't shout earlier, that was his normal speaking voice it was only that he spoke with such exuberance that his voice carried very easily. "I am Guy"

He was very straight forward I'd give him that.

"I am Keiko" I said automatically. Kakashi however remained silent

"It is most pleasing to meet you Keiko", he said his teeth shining as he grinned, "I did not however catch your name?" He said pointedly to Kakashi.

Kakashi though remained silent simply staring back at Guy.

"I can see I have a challenge on my hands! Perhaps you are right and we give our names away too easily! Yes I can see that now. Truly you are youthful boy in a mask!"

This Guy was hilarious, I was trying to not to laugh for Kakashi's sake but risking a furtive look his way I could see he was already red faced in embarrassment.

Guy proclaimed "I shall make it my mission to find your name!" So saying he jumped into the trees but we could hear his voice long into the distance "and if I do not I shall find the names of 100 others and if I cannot do that I will…" his voice was eventually lost to the forest at our backs.

"Why didn't you introduce yourself" I asked

"Don't you know who that is?" I shook my head, "That's Might Guy, he runs around the village all the time and he goes to the academy but he's not fit to be a ninja, all he focuses on is taijutsu."

I hummed

"That might be the most short sighted thing I've heard you say."

Kakashi looked at me sharply "Did you not hear him? He's too loud to be a ninja."

"Kushina is loud too but she might be jounin soon" I replied

Kakashi scrunched up his face "That's different though."

"How?"

Kakashi huffed before leaning back into the tree, "It just is."

I didn't say anything and Kakashi grew frustrated because he could feel I didn't agree.

"He was in hospital because he tried to beat up 2 ninja for talking about his father!" He said as though that proved his point.

"So he has values he's willing to fight to protect, and the strength to take on two qualified shinobi and survive? He's sounding like a better ninja all the time" I half joked.

Kakashi though still wasn't happy and he didn't broach the subject again.

* * *

It was a few days later when we next saw Guy. I think I audibly heard Kakashi groan at the sight of him, he waved as he saw us.

"Hello there Keiko. And Kakashi! Finding your name was a most refreshing challenge, requiring all of my skill and wit." He said greeting us, perhaps it was because he was wearing a sling earlier but I had not noticed until now Guy's rather unique appearance. He was dressed head to toe in a green jumpsuit with contrasting orange leg warmers that were stretched around his arms and legs and now revealed behind his head bandage were eyebrows taller than some blades of grass. If he was striking before he was impossible to miss now.

"Nice to see you again Guy" I said

"Yosh, truly youth has brought us together this day, would you like to train?"

Kakashi stayed silent plainly trying to ignore him so I spoke up, "We'd love to, what would you like to do, spar?" I asked

Guy smiled widely showing all of his teeth, "Youthful minds think alike Keiko! Come we shall find a place to display our fervour"

He led us to a nearby training field, Kakashi only coming somewhat reluctantly.

"Which of us will spar first?" Guy asked backflipping across the field enthusiastically.

I noticed Kakashi was still paying no attention so I clapped him on the shoulder and said "Kakashi will go first, I'll be the referee"

Kakashi looked at me betrayed but I just smiled and shrugged. It didn't seem like he minded too much though for he stepped forward and took up a spot across from Guy, showing a seal of confrontation.

At my signal they began and I immediately realised that it was going to be a close match, Guy's taijutsu was every bit as polished as ours and his speed might even be edging Kakashi Out, Kakashi seemed to realise this too for after a few engagements he leaped away.

They spent a few moments then circling each other before they leaped together again and despite the speed I could now see Kakashi sporting a wide smile that stretched his mask despite the heavy hits that were being exchanged, they remained in close combat for a marathon five minutes.

When they disengaged a second time both of them were looking worse for wear and breathing heavily with Guy limping again on one leg and Kakashi bearing a shining bruise on his face and his arm hanging limply be his side, his mask had also been torn away at some point during the fight. They were both openly grinning now and when they jumped together for the third time I would not have liked to say who I thought would win. Eventually it finished with 2 overhead punches being thrown into the opposite combatants face and they both fell down where they stood like collapsing accordions.

"I pronounce this match a draw" I said walking over. Kakashi groaned as I lifted him onto my shoulder and I nearly collapsed when I tried to lift up Guy, a second attempt with a stronger grip got him onto my shoulder but my foot sunk into the soil with his weight.

"How do you weigh this much Guy" I ground out as I made my way to the hospital.

Apparently his exhaustion didn't exhaust his voice for he explained in his usual boisterous voice "Apologies Keiko those will be the weights I train in I can remove them if it is a problem?"

"No no, just stay still I'll be fine" I replied 'though', I thought to myself, 'weight training might be something to look into'.

"A most youthful match Kakashi, We should spar again!" Guy said to Kakashi.

I thought for a moment Kakashi wasn't going to respond until I heard a somewhat tired voice from somewhere over my shoulder say say "Huh, did you say something Guy?"

* * *

By the time I arrived at the hospital it was approaching evening. The hospital was even busier than usual but someone walking in with two, apparently unconscious, bodies on their shoulders is bound to get attention so we were luckily seen quite quickly, the elderly nurse who took them said that resources were too tight to heal them outright but they had some beds spare they could use for the night.

"Has anything happened in the war?" I asked as the nurse guided us to the room guy and Kakashi was to share.

"Nothing more than usual, we're just under a bit more strain because Tsunade has stopped showing up for her shifts. Can't blame her, she's lost almost everything in this war, poor girl" she explained

I nodded in understanding, it didn't seem right that a medic should get dealt that hand in a war but war was indiscriminate in its devastation.

Once Kakashi and Guy were laid out in their rooms, the nurse and I left them she turned to talk to me as we left.

"They won't be here long, Guy has been here before and is renowned for sneaking out and I've seen that other boys type before. Not one to accept help freely, you understand" she said.

I nodded that I did but had seen something down the corridor that stole my attention, I excused myself from the nurse and made my way down the towards where Tuechi was sat cutting a profile of utter grief. I sat down next to him.

He didn't say anything, at first he didn't even notice he had company. After a few minutes a glance away from his hands to my side indicated he knew I was there. He still didn't say anything and neither did I.

After a few more minutes he sat back looking out of the window but his gaze seemed to rest somewhere else. At length he said "They said she didn't feel any pain. I don't know if they can know for sure. Can you feel pain when you're unconscious?"

I put my hand on his back, some part of my mind registered the fact that he wasn't wearing the clothes he wore when he was cooking and it was the first time I was seeing him dressed casually.

"She was never the same after we had our daughter, always having to sit down suddenly, she collapsed once or twice just from getting up to quickly" he shook his head "She was still young, she didn't think she needed to see a doctor." He wiped his eyes.

"I'm sorry I don't know why I'm telling you this. You're probably too young to understand", he turned round to look at me and something must have caught his attention in my face because he paused for a moment, considering "No, perhaps you do."

I nodded and rubbed his back sitting there for a few more minutes. "I am sorry." I said as I got up and walked away. There was nothing more I could say.

* * *

Leaving the hospital I had to do a double take at the person just ahead of me.

"Minato?!"

He turned around and grinned seeing me though I did notice it didn't reach the shadows hanging under his eyes, "Ko! I was just heading to the hokage tower want to come?" He asked, it was getting late and I had the academy the next day but something about Minato made me feel like he didn't want to be left alone at that moment.

"Of course" I said taking up step next to him. We didn't speak much at all on the way to the tower other than him explaining that it was policy for returning ninja to report for a medical before reporting to the Hokage. I think he told me in case I was worried about whether he was hurt.

When we arrived at the tower it was busier than I had ever seen it, Minato noticed my surprise and told me once we finally found ourselves in an empty staircase that everyone was busy because the war might be coming to an end soon. A surprise, but not an unexpected one, there was only so long any war could go on for before the attrition became too much. I wondered if it had anything to do with Minato's mission but now wasn't the time to ask.

We reached the ante room to the hokage's office and even here it was surprisingly busy, Minato told me to go and sit down whilst he made himself known to the Hokage.

I found my seat next to a heavyset man who was sat hunched over his hands. Sitting down I heard the hokage's assistant explain that the Hokage was currently busy with a foreign emissary and that Minato would have to wait.

I glanced towards the hokage's office imagining what could be going on inside when I really saw the the man next to me for the first time. His hair was as white as mine and cascaded in a haphazard fashion down the back of his chair and onto the floor.

He turned to me noticing my gaze and I saw the red lines stretching down his face and suddenly his face drained of all colour.

"Jiraiya!?" I heard Minato exclaim distantly

Suddenly I was in a hospital room 6 months ago where a nurse was demanding why I looked like a man named Jiraiya and then months before when Minato asked me who my parents were as his face reached the same pallor as the face staring back at me now.

I came to the only conclusion that made sense. The only people in this room that did not know I was related to this mountainous man was the man himself and me.

* * *

AN: Not sure how I feel about this chapter, some parts went better than expected some parts worse. I also feel kind of like things are happening too quickly but then I worry that I don't want the pace to be too slow. When I started I had a general plan for how I wanted this to go and I did not plan to introduce Jiraiya to Keiko until much later but for some reason doing it now seems right. Anyhow hope you enjoyed. See you in the next chapter.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

* * *

The sound rushed back to the room as I looked up at Minato who had made his way over. He looked between me and Jiraiya, panic wrote wide upon his face. "You weren't supposed to find out this way. Either of you."

Jiraiya audibly swallowed and said "Just who is this kid Minato?"

"Ah, er, perhaps that might be better for the Hokage to explain." Minato replied nervously

At this point I spoke up "you mean the Hokage knows as well, just how long have you been keeping secrets from me Minato."

Minato got even more panicked hearing the disappointment in my voice but had no time to respond as the assistant called from her desk that the Hokage was free now.

"Well I'm coming in too, I want to get to the bottom of this." Jiraiya growled getting up

I followed behind though Minato made to stop me. I answered him with a glare and he gave in knowing I wouldn't be dissuaded.

The Hokage looked tired but seeing Jiraiya he sat up a little, he smiled uncertainly seeing Minato come in after him but then sunk further into his chair seeing me following them both.

"What's going on sensei, you leave a message at the Ame outpost for me to return as soon as possible and when I get here I discover…" He looked at me in askance from my name,

"Keiko" I provided

"Keiko, who looks like a bad henge of a younger me."

"I will answer your questions Jiraiya but Keiko will need to leave" the Hokage said.

I narrowed my eyes "What are you hiding from me, obviously he's related to me in some way, why am I not allowed to know. Can I not be trusted?" I asked incredulously.

There was silence for a moment, Minato stood to my side more uncomfortable than before, the Hokage rubbed the bridge of his nose before reaching for his pipe.

"You… _don't_ trust me?" I asked quietly.

The Hokage remained silent for a moment before he turned to Minato, "You can make your report tomorrow Minato, I have most of it from your correspondence." it was a clear dismissal and Minato nodded before looking between Jiraiya and myself and leaving.

"Take a seat Keiko, Jiraiya." I did gratefully, if my world hadn't been tilted on its access before it was making an exit from the solar system now.

"I'll stand." Jiraiya responded though he stepped forward next to where I sat, putting himself almost between me and the hokage.

The Hokage nodded though he paused for a moment and I felt an outflow of chakra I had come to associate with a seal activating. "Keiko. When you first came to this village we marked you from day one as a possible spy."

"What!" I exclaimed "But I was 3."

"And we were at war." the Hokage said implacably, "Understand Keiko, we are are on high alert for spies at the best of times but you appeared during wartime with a very high intelligence, advanced abilities and in addition to that you displayed some skills that may have indicated prior training, combine that with you baring a resemblance to one of our top shinobi and a student of mine. In those circumstances there was little else we could think."

I sat there for a few moments considering, "So why tell me now, why not just lock me away as soon as I arrived?" I asked

"We may be killers, but we aren't monsters." the Hokage said dryly "I was not going to lock you up and potentially have you tortured on no evidence at all. As to why I'm telling you now, well… I have little choice and since you're bound to that chair I don't have to worry about you trying to make an escape."

I suddenly felt my insides go cold as I realised he was right. I couldn't pull myself away from the chair.

"So what now?", I asked, "Are you going to torture me now that I know your suspicions."

The Hokage shook his head "If at all possible I would like to avoid that"

"So what are you suggesting Sensei?" Jiraiya finally asked

"We have," he looked at the clock "Two hours before I need to go to this evening's council meeting, between then and now Keiko you are going to convince us of your innocence." he didn't need to say what the alternative was.

I suddenly felt ill.

* * *

I wanted to hate this man sat in front of me but, honestly, if I were in his place I might have made the same decision. Actually I'm not sure I would have even been so lenient.

I had spent the first half hour trying to think of anything that could prove my innocence but with nothing definitive coming to mind I was beginning to sweat. The Hokage had taken up a spot looking out the window at the rapidly descending darkness of night time.

Jiraiya had taken up residence by the door sat down on a couch. He hadn't said anything since this 2 hours started.

I had to strain my neck every few minutes to see the time and it seemed to be passing both too slowly and too quickly.

* * *

One hour had passed and I was staring at my knees coming to the realisation that this was where this life might end when the Hokage walked in front of me, leaning backwards against his desk. He spoke for the first time since the two hours started.

"Please Keiko, give me something. You will be sent to interrogation should we end these two hours like this. You will be mindwalked aggressively. Few come out of those sessions with their minds intact. You are a promising ninja, anything you can think of might be helpful."

I shook my head, "I don't have anything. I tried to live as best I can since I came to this village, but there's nothing I have done which I think could clear a suspicion like this." At this point I had resigned myself.

* * *

Another half hour passed and Jiraiya asked for my file which was passed to him. I had given up thinking my way out.

Jiraiya stepped forward after after a few minutes and said "Listen kid, honestly there's not much against you here, mainly it's just the lack of evidence that you were ever at the orphanage you claim you came from, we have records recovered from the orphanage that show everyone else that came from there definitely lived there but your records weren't among them."

I looked up sharply, I did have records from the orphanage, I had seen them myself but as quickly as my hopes were raised I slumped back down in my chair.

"What is it kid?" Jiraiya demanded, "What did you remember?"

"My records were there. I removed them the night of the fire so I could try and find out who my parents were. When it only told me my mother was dead though I threw it into what was left of the fire."

The Hokage stepped forward, "Can you remember the contents"

I nodded, "I could."

He put his hands on both my shoulders, "In detail?"

I frowned nodding, "My memory is perfect. Why?"

The Hokage ignored me and walked past my chair, I heard the door open and close behind me but I couldn't turn my head far enough to see if the Hokage had left.

I looked up at Jiraiya who was smiling "looks like you might have just earned a reprieve kid. By the way I don't like the idea of these secrets being kept from you for so long on so little evidence so here's your file." He held it in front of me and I scanned through the document. The fact that my journal wasn't keyed to me was a concern and I felt it was an unnecessary falsehood Minato had sold to me. I would be having words with him later. But I knew enough to seal it properly now so at least I was aware of it. The main thing that I took away though was that not only was the man stood in front of me related to me, he was my father.

I looked away from the file and to Jiraiya "you're my father?" I said. It wasn't really a question but it seemed so alien to finally have a solid tie to this world after so long. I had created my own, given time. But this was one of the earliest most solid relationships you could have in any life, family.

Jiraiya scratched the back of his head looking slightly uncomfortable, "It feels odd to hear it said but I guess so kid."

I was going to ask another question, another thousand questions but the door opened again and Jiraiya deftly closed the folder before anyone could see.

"Keiko," the Hokage said, striding back into view, "This is Toshi Yamanaka," he gestured to another man that stepped into view, "He is able to see specific memories if you call them to the forefront of your mind. In this way we may be able to alay all suspicions. He has been briefed on what he is looking for should you agree to the procedure."

I didn't see that I had much choice but I indicated that I understood.

Toshi then stepped forward looking somewhat nervous, "What you need to know is this procedure... It's not without risk. My clan have been advancing techniques involving the mind since we began but it's still not well understood. Things can and do go wrong and subjects don't always recover. Having said that this won't be a full mindwalk so the risk should be reduced. Do you understand?" I nodded, "Are you still willing to undergo the procedure?" I nodded again and Toshi smiled comfortingly and placed his palm on my forehead. "What I need you to do is concentrate on the memory you want me to see, bring it to the forefront of your mind, if you can try to imagine it overlaying what you see in front of you. Close your eyes if it helps."

I did close my eyes and a few moments later I could feel Toshi's chakra pushing into me. It was an alien experience and not at all pleasant but I endured. Moments passed and my memory of the day I woke up beneath the tree near the ruins of the orphanage started to become clearer, brighter, more solid. I seemed to hear, as if from a distance, Toshi asking me to go through the memory, to where I picked up the folder.

I tried to concentrate, the chakra coming from Toshi was beginning to burn. I played through the moments where I picked up the folder. Toshi said something again but I couldn't make it out.

I started flicking through the pages of the folder. Pausing the memory when I came across significant documents such as the official looking one I had initially dismissed after looking over it. There was a high pitched whining in my ears now. I got to the part of the folder where the matron had left her own notes. My vision was going white at the edges. I thought I could hear shouting but I wasn't sure. I wasn't sure what I could hear, was there sound? The folder I had in front of me bled into darkness, the darkness warring with the white that had seeped in at the edges of my vision and then I was sinking down into it, sinking into white and black. And then just black.

* * *

I came back to awareness slowly, like I was pulling myself from quicksand. Consciousness began as a fleeting thing I tried to cling onto but it slipped away. When I first opened my eyes I thought everything was still white but after I blinked I realised it was a light. I was layed down in a bed staring at the ceiling. It felt like I had been there for a while.

"Careful kid, you're OK, just in a hospital bed, Kakashi was Here earlier but he had to leave" I looked around blearily for the source of the noise.

"Who're you? Where am I? Who's Kakashi?" I said, the face that I had fixed on flinched and worry starting mixing in to his features.

"Er, wait here, I'll go get someone" He said making to get up.

I couldn't hold it any longer, I started laughing, it hurt my head but it was worth it.

Jiraiya looked down at me from where he got to at the foot of my bed and his face morphed from concern to confusion and then fianlly he sulked. "Haha very funny brat" he said making his way back to his chair.

"Your… face." I managed to get out between fits of laughter.

Eventually I calmed down, Jiraiya was still sulking though.

"That was a pretty mean joke kid" he said at last.

I hummed "Maybe. How often does an opportunity like that come around though?"

He was quiet for a few moments before he asked if I wanted any water, I nodded and he helped get me sat up by piling more pillows at my back. My head swam unpleasantly from the movement but with Jiraiya helping I was eventually comfortably sat up.

Sipping at the glass of water he gave me I eventually asked "So. What happened?"

Jiraiya looked at be before clearing his throat "Well the good news is Sensei got the evidence he needed and your name is cleared. I'll still be speaking to him about this later though." I nodded waiting for the rest of it. "The bad news is the stress the procedure put you through almost caused you to have a stroke. You went into a seizure immediately after."

I looked up from my water, I hadn't noticed any weakness in my limbs or any side effects of a stroke, "Am I going to be OK?"

Jiraiya grinned, "No need to worry about that kid we have the best medic in any of the elemental nations."

As if on queue Tsunade appeared at the doorway. "A good thing too, by the time you had gotten to me you were literally minutes away from having a massive cerebral hemorrhage." She shook her head "I don't know what the Hokage was thinking, your mind would have been unrecoverable had that happened."

Jiraiya waved that away, "Not a chance with you here Tsunade" he said, I heard her scoff and then Jiraiya turned back to me, "Anyway, your memory of the document has been judged accurate and valid so all suspicions have been cleared, the Hokage has given me permission to tell you that you're.… my son. That still sounds weird to me. But you already knew that. Hmmm I think that's everything. Oh the war ended, the peace treaty was signed 2 days ago. Including today you've been unconscious for 5 days"

I nodded along with what he was saying but almost jumped when he said I was here for 5 days "How have I been here for 5 days!?" I exclaimed

"You nearly died brat, I was leaving and if it wasn't for Jiraiya begging me to come back you'd have probably been left to some other medic and I don't think I would have betted on you living."

I shuddered at that thought and then asked "What do you mean leaving?"

Tsunade's mood soured a little and she said "With what happened with..." She waved a hand, "In the war. I had asked Sensei for some time away, kind of like a holiday with no definite end. I was on my way with little Shizune when Jiraiya caught up with me babbling about you, honestly I already knew about your relation and wasn't about to turn around even with Jiraiya begging me but he more or less dragged me back and here we are."

I nodded and after a few moments passed with no one saying anything I asked "Do you think you'll be leaving again?" I could understand running away from your grief but in the long term it never ended well in my experience. That was to say nothing of the lives that might be saved if a medic of her caliber was available. If she had been around would Tuechi's wife have died? We'd never know but if she was still planning to leave I would like to try and convince her against it.

Tsunade grimaced "It's weird the difference 5 days can make. If you had asked me 2 days ago my answer would still have been a 'hell yes'. Now though?" She shrugged "I'm starting to feel like I'm making a difference again and if nothing else I did make a promise to make sure Jiraiya took full responsibility for his actions in the past."

It took a moment to put together what she was talking about but when I did I turned to Jiraiya "We have got a lot of catching up to do."

"Damn right kid," he said grinning suddenly he jumped up from his chair striking a pose "For I am Jiraiya, the great toad sage of moun-"

There was a blur from the doorway and Jiraiya was on the floor "What have I told you about your stupid introductions" Tsunade seethed, she kicked his side eliciting a grunt from Jiraiya before calming and turning to me. "Visiting times are up at the moment, it's 11pm but that kid Kakashi will probably be back tomorrow. He's come in every day since you were admitted. You'll be in for a few more days yet. Just as a precaution."

I nodded smiling "Will you be staying?" I asked again.

Tsunade sighed "Sure brat, I'll stay"

* * *

AN: Kinda short but it felt right to end it here. After all getting Tsunade to not leave the village is the first significant difference Keiko has made so far. Hope you enjoyed. See you in the next chapter.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

* * *

The next day Kakashi did come in and though he didn't say much it was very evident the relief he felt when he saw I was conscious again, he asked me what had happened but between us we had agreed the night before that it was best not to tell anyone what happened in the Hokage's office, the suspicion had been cleared, the past was in the past. Though that wasn't going to stop me from having a few choice words with Minato when I saw him.

Kakashi told me that since the peace deal was signed the village had been celebrating and he mostly came to see me just to avoid the hassle of all the other people partying, not that I believed that. He told me Kushina had also come to see me once or twice but she was extremely busy at the moment with a project she wouldn't tell anyone about but it had something to do with Minato because he was often cooped up with her at the same time.

Guy visited later that same day though he didn't stay long, I couldn't blame him, I wasn't much a huge fan of hospitals myself but Guy just seemed like the antithesis of the atmosphere a hospital exudes.

When evening began to fall I lay down to get some rest and had seemingly only closed my eyes for a moment when I was waking up again, a quick look outside my window though showed it was the middle of the night. I was about to roll over and get back to sleep when I saw the silhouette of the man in the chair next to my bed, he reached out and turned my bedside lamp on. It was the Hokage. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh man, don't do that to me Hokage." I said sighing in relief.

He gave me the mischievous smile of an old man and said in a hushed tone "I am sorry Keiko, I came to visit you but you were already asleep, so I thought I'd take some time to sit here and think. There hasn't been much time for quiet these last few days. Not a bad thing. Not a bad thing at all considering the times we're in. Sometimes though you need a bit of solitude." I nodded, I didn't begrudge him that, this man had the hardest job in the village.

"I wanted to... Ah, before we get onto that I have a small question. Is it Kei or Ko you prefer to go by?" He chuckled softly, "I have heard you go by each even within the same conversation."

I shrugged "Minato was the one that came up with Ko, Kushina decided on Kei when I reached the village. Neither will be convinced to choose the other so I've decided to take a kind of neutral stance for the sake of my own health Hokage."

He laughed a little at that too, "Ah yes it would not do to get on Kushina's bad side, did you know they have started calling her the red hot habenero for her temper?" I shook my head "Strange, that her strongest rages are brought about not by insults to herself but insults to those she considers family, though I guess that is part of the will of fire." I got the impression he wasn't talking entirely to me at that moment, perhaps more musing to himself. After a few moments he seemed to gather himself "In any case I shall call you Keiko, it seems only wise that I too remain a neutral in this small war you've inadvertently created," He smiled "In truth I came here because I felt I owed you an apology" I began to wave it away and opened my mouth to tell him it was not necessary but he stopped me with a hand, "Permit me to at least apologise Keiko, it seems we could have avoided this entire fiasco if I had simply asked you in the first place, you gave us no reason other than being who you are for having suspicions of you."

"You have nothing to apologise for Hokage, you are already forgiven. I think I can understand the weight that must come from being the leader of a village, you can't sacrifice the safety of your people for one newcomer."

The Hokage was silent for a moment before he said "Thank you Keiko. I'm glad of your understanding. Now though," He reached for the lamp again, "I had better be away before Tsunade catches me after visiting hours, I'll have no quiet for the rest of my days otherwise." and somewhere between the disappearing light of the lamp and the darkness closing in the Hokage disappeared from the room.

* * *

Tsunade let me go the next afternoon but not before a full medical, a long battery of tests that poked and prodded and pinched and stung in places that I wasn't even aware it was possible to run a test on, I did complain at one point but Tsunade said I would be expected to subject myself to these exams regularly after becoming a ninja so I had better get used to them. She seemed to become more thorough in her tests after that as well so I decided it was safer to just stay quiet.

I headed to Kakashi's house first but found there was no one at home, so I assumed he must still be at the academy. Heading home it felt like it had been much longer than five days since I had opened my door and I realised what I was really missing being stuck in the hospital was something to read.

I opened the door and nearly had a heart attack for the 2nd time in as many days as people jumped up shouting "SURPRISE!". Somehow Jiraiya, Minato, Kushina, Kakashi, Sakumo, Guy, Tuechi and even (somehow) Tsunade had managed to squeeze themselves into my living room. I suspected Tsunade must have raced here from the hospital after my physical.

Luckily it turned out I didn't need to worry about everyone fitting into my house since they had set up tables and chairs with food behind the building, I got the feeling that most of the organisation was done by Kushina judging by the amount of ramen available.

It wasn't long before Minato took me aside and I could already tell what he was going to say by his face, the shadows he had hanging under his eyes from when he got back from his mission had gone but a different beast lurked there now; guilt.

"Ko," He started, "I should apologise for some of the things I told you, for the things I kept from you."

I nodded seriously "You should. But you know what? It's too late." Minato looked so crestfallen I couldn't leave him out for too long, "It's too late because I've already forgiven you."

He looked confused but at my grin he realised I wasn't all that angry with him, I gripped his forearm and wrapped my other arm around him "Really though, if you do something like that again I might have to show you how good I've gotten at sealing things away." I said, only half joking, he laughed nervously in return and we made our way back to the party where Jiraiya was gamely trying to beat Kushina in a ramen eating contest overlooked by a swift Tuechi who was filling up bowls before the previous ones were even finished.

When Kushina eventually won - I don't think anyone expected anything different - the bowls were stacked so high some of the one's on the bottom look to have cracked under the weight of those above them. I took the opportunity to lift a very bloated Jiraiya to his feet and guide him to a bench.

"So how do you feel about all this." I said sitting next to him

He didn't need to ask what I was talking about, "You know, I never intended something like this to happen." He sat back, groaning a little at his dilated stomach "But now that it has, I think maybe it might be for the best." He looked at me, "I can't promise to always be around, you know, but I can see you've made plenty of friends so I'm not too worried about you... It's kind of ironic that you were suspected as being a spy, did you know that?"

I shook my head frowning "No, why?"

"Well this isn't common knowledge so don't tell anyone but I spent much of the last war creating my own information network, I'm something like the unofficial spymaster of Konoha."

I did see the comedy in that and couldn't help but smile at the thought.

"I'll be here as much as I can make time to be though." He promised "I don't think Tsunade would let me do otherwise" he said laughing and I grinned back.

A few minutes later we could see Tsunade and Sakumo were both sending looks off in our direction, plainly wanting to talk to either me or Jiraiya but respectful enough to give me some time alone with Jiraiya. We decided to put them out of their misery and made our way back towards the party.

* * *

When I got back to the Academy I found out that the official story they had given for my absence was a training related injury, Saku didn't seem too impressed, he was always impressing upon us the importance of safety when training so I wasn't surprised when he kept me back after class to give me a lecture on properly warming up and not pushing beyond our limits. I listened diligently and fortunately it didn't last took long, when I finally left the academy I found Kakashi waiting for me with his father.

"Want to come back to my house? My dad's going to be showing me a new chakra exercise." He said

I thought about it, I already had my chakra control as well controlled as I felt it was going to get, but I knew Sakumo was one of the best ninja in the village, the likelihood that he would have something of value to share was good enough that I decided turning him down wasn't really a choice.

"Sure," I said smiling up at Sakumo.

When we got back to Kakashi's house Sakumo passed us both a kunai each and told us to start running up trees amrking with the kunai how far we had made it up. Kakashi looked a little confused but I had seen Minato do something similar back during the fight at the orphanage so running at a tree towards the edge of Sakumo's garden I placed my first foot on the tree and then started directing chakra to my feet and on my second step it became apparent I had miscalculated somewhere, there was an explosion and pieces of tree and bark went flying in all directions, I myself flew backwards through the air landing in a heap near Sakumo and Kakashi.

Everyone was silent a few moments as the sounds of the tree's trunk splintering and snapping as it fell to one side. Once it had finished falling Sakumo brought his head out of his hands.

"Not quite Ko, but you have the idea… Just use much much less chakra than that next time" he said

I looked in shock at the fractured tree stump I had left and nodded dumbly.

"Perhaps it would be best if I gave a demonstration," he said walking up to another tree, "The trick is to to apply the right amount of chakra." He placed his foot on the tree "Too much," the bark beneath his feet broke and his leg came away from the tree "and you push yourself away, too little," He placed his foot on the tree again and began to lift his other foot but the foot he had on the tree slid down, "and you won't have a good enough grip."

Kakashi and I nodded and, finding different trees, made our own attempts. To my surprise Kakashi made it a quarter of the way up his tree on his first try. For myself, rather than making a running start I put my foot on the tree to begin with and gradually eked out the chakra to my foot, when I felt I had a strong enough grip I lifted my other leg and started trying to channel chakra there. It was difficult but step by step I was making my way up the tree, sliding back a few inches sometimes but moving forward with increasing confidence.

By the time I had made it halfway up my tree Kakashi had reached the same level, though this was his 7th or 8th attempt at running at the tree. By the time I had made it to the top of my tree Kakashi had made it roughly three quarters of the way up, Sakumo called me down.

"It seems you have an intrinsic understanding of where your chakra is at all times Ko, I don't think I've seen someone able to channel chakra so deliberately and easily. If you didn't have so much chakra you would have made a great medic." I nodded at his praise and at that moment Kakashi shouted down from the top of his tree his arms raised in a rare fit of public celebration.

"What do you have next?" I asked Sakumo, the chakra training exercise had been useful not just for the increased chakra control but for allowing us to now climb up solid surfaces without handholds, I was beginning to think that anything strange in this world could just be explained away by chakra, it was like magic. I realised when I had started I had never tried pushing chakra out from other parts of my body other than my hands, I put away that piece of information for later because I suddenly came to the conclusion that there must be many places around the body that chakra can exude from.

He rubbed the back of his head laughing "Honestly I never thought you'd get this far so quickly I didn't really have anything else prepared. Other than dinner that is."

He added the last and Kakashi was down out if his tree in moments. Sakumo's food was just too good.

* * *

When I headed home after dinner Kakashi came with me, I was wondering why but it didn't take long to find out.

"So why were you in the hospital?" Kakashi asked.

"Didn't you hear? Terrible training accident, you know how much of an idiot I am, I let myself loose on a training dummy and...No?" He didn't look like he was buying it.

"You don't end up in a coma for 5 days with Tsunade of all people looking after you from a 'training accident'." He deadpanned

I thought about it for a moment, technically I think Jiraiya being my father was still sort of a secret, or at least I hadn't gotten confirmation either way from either Jiraiya or the Hokage and the events that took place in the Hokage's office were definitely a closed book. "I'm.. not sure if I can. Orders of the Hokage I promise." I replied.

He looked at me skeptically, "Sure… Does it have anything to do with how you're suddenly friends with Jiraiya? I saw you two talking a lot at the party yesterday."

"My lips are sealed." I said, and Kakashi let it drop knowing he wasn't going to get anything else out of me.

* * *

When I got back to my house I used the evening to study fuinjutsu, so absorbed was I that I didn't notice my window was open until I felt the breeze from outside, looking up I saw Jiraiya leaning on the window ledge.

"How's it going kid?" He asked

I grinned seeing him, Jiraiya was so easy going that you sometimes forgot he was a trained killer and not just that but one of the elite in the village. "Not too bad, just brushing up on my fuinjutsu - Kushina would kill me if I started slacking, coma or not." I joked

"Fuinjutsu eh?" He climbed in looking at the scroll I was reading, eventually giving a whistle "This is some really advanced stuff. You sure you understand all of this?" He said grinning

I knew he was joking but I nodded anyway "This is just revision, I know most of this stuff already" Jiraiya seemed to size me up for a minute before saying, "How'd you like to drop the books for the evening and I take you outside and teach you a jutsu or two?"

I didn't need to be asked twice.

* * *

The first jutsu he taught me didn't have a name but it caused my hair to length and harden into a kind of jagged shield, Jiraiya's could expand and grow to shield a few people but as it stood my hair was only big enough to cloak myself. It took a while to get right but by the time we had finished I was experimenting with other possibilities like stretching it over my hands to act as a kind of spiky glove.

The second jutsu he taught me I hadn't been able to perform despite his best efforts to show me where I was going wrong, it was called Swamp of The Underworld, it certainly looked amazing when Jiraiya used it, it changed an entire field into a boggy swamp, definitely a game changer in a larger battle. He did tell me that at first I'd be lucky to get something even close to a quarter of the size of what he created, I had to give up trying towards the end of the session because the technique was so chakra intensive, even though I never succeeded in executing it the chakra still got expended. He clapped my shoulder on the way back to my house.

"No need to worry kid, Earth jutsu might just not be for you."

I nodded tiredly in response, I wanted to ask what he meant by 'not for me' but my feet were barely making progress on the dirt road back to where I lived.

"I'm glad I caught you today, I have to back out on a mission from tomorrow so I might not see you again for a while."

Something about that made me upset but in kind of a detached way, I was struggling to think through what he was saying and then the ground was coming up to meet me.

I think Jiraiya must have caught me because the next thing I knew I was being held on his back my head laying on his enormous mane of hair.I think I could hear him laughing about something in the distance.

I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew I was being laid onto a soft futon, I tried to open my eyes but they wouldn't open beyond me just being able to make out a silhouette between the slits of my eyelids.

"Sweet dreams kid."

I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore and I slept.

* * *

From then my Academy days seemed to fly by, I didn't see Jiraiya again and a great part of me missed spending time with him, the amount we were being asked to learn in class though had really shifted up and some nights I found I was having to bring work home rather than using the evenings to work on fuinjutsu.

My medical at the hospital came back a few weeks later and indicated I had an abundance of Yin chakra. Tsunade's words were "A freakishly large amount". It seemed to explain my large chakra reserves as the more I trained my body the more Yang chakra I had to combine and use techniques, Tsunade suspected it also had something to do with my accelerated growth, by the time I was three quarters of the way through my academy year I had already grown to 5 foot. It also explained why I felt as if I still had more chakra to use after using up my available chakra, there was a vast pool of yin chakra that was untapped and unusable. Tsunade lamented that I wasn't very good at genjutsu, with that amount of Yin chakra she had told me my genjutsu would have been some of the strongest in the village.

My mornings now were when I trained physically, I got up at 5 every morning and trained until I had to leave for the academy at 8:45, Kakashi was a great help as he was always coming by to remind me before I got too involved in my training and I left myself late. Saku didn't hold with students that weren't punctual. Kakashi himself didn't ask anything more about the incident that landed me in hospital which I was thankful for, I could tell it had bugged him at the time as well, sometimes I felt like I didn't deserve a friend like Kakashi.

I wanted to learn more about some subjects like elemental jutsu but with the pressure leading up to exams there wasn't much chance at all of that.

It was just a few days before the end of year graduation exam when Jiraiya came back to the village.

* * *

"The academy is getting really tiresome lately" Kakashi observed, "I don't see why we need to know some of these things, I mean practicing how to draw profiles? What use is that"

I looked over to Kakashi, We were on our way back from the academy, "You know completing a mission isn't the end of a mission right? If you see a suspicious individual on a mission how are you going to put it into your report if you can't at least pass on a likeness of how he looked"

Kakashi huffed, knowing I was right but not happy about it.

Suddenly I found myself going up in the world until I was dropped onto a set of shoulders, "How's it going kid?"

"Jiraiya!" I exclaimed

"The one and only." He said grinning, "How's the academy going."

"Same as always," I replied smugly, "I get tests every now and again and I ace them."

Jiraiya barked a laugh, "That's my boy."

I jumped hearing that and looked at Kakashi who hadn't reacted, after a few moments he noticed me and glanced up at me "What? Have you seen how you two look next to each other, it only took me a few weeks to put it together."

I chuckled at my worry and Jiraiya nodded "Yeah, Sakumo told me a while ago that it was kind of hard to miss, It's regarded as something of an open secret at this point Ko."

"So how about how he ended up in the hospital 6 months ago?" Kakashi asked.

Jiraiya looked down at him, "Still very much a closed secret I'm afraid"

Kakashi huffed through his mask.

"How about I take you two kids to a training ground and teach you a thing or two?" Jiraiya asked.

"I'm not going to say no." Kakashi deadpanned as I threw up my arms in celebration very nearly losing my balance on Jiraiya's shoulders.

* * *

AN: Phew I really struggled with dialogue to begin with but I think I'm getting used to it, the same with fight scenes sometimes I think I'm giving too much detail... oh well hopefully they're OK anyway. I hope there aren't too many spelling/grammer errors I do try and read back through but I always see one or two once I've submitted. This upload schedule of one chapter a day has lasted a while and I'm not sure how long I can keep it up so don't get too used to it. Hope you enjoy. See you in the next chapter. It might, at least partially, be from Jiraiya's point of View.

Bonus Round: Review responses! (part 2)

I've really gotten a lot of reviews recently and I want to thank those that left positive reviews, I wanted to just address a few that I had seen.

So the first thing is I've had a few people remark that Keiko is a female name and they're right it is usually given to females but it isn't exclusively female, for example there was a Japanese emperor named Keiko.

The next thing is some people seemed confused as to the timeline of Naruto, the chapters so far have taken place at the closing of the second shinobi world war, the 3rd comes in about 5 years if I remember correctly.

After that I've had some suggestions on what to do with the story, I've already got the broad strokes up to and past the 3rd shinobi war already marked out in my head though it feels weird to have it take so long to have something in my head to be translated into text, I'm not going to retcon anything I've done so far and it's unlikely I'll do anything with suggestions I'm given. A lot of people seem to be thinking of the konoha 11 and how they're coming into the story. I wouldn't worry so much we're still nearly 10 years away from them even being born and when we eventually reach that point things might look very different though honestly I've only got vague ideas of what the story will look like at that point.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

* * *

Fooling border guards was easy once you knew what they were looking for, coming back from the land of mist though always got a little tricky when you were navigating between the islands, the natural dangers were bad enough, with the heavy mist that lay over the sea and land here having a knowledgeable guide was a necessity. This was why I had come to the docks on the rougher end of a seaport village. Kirikaku it used to be called. It was the closest port to Uzushiogakure from Kiri but since the village was destroyed the business had died with it. For the most part those that had made their craft the navigating of the sea had left with the exception of a man I had been told practically lived in the only bar in this village. A place I was rapidly realising I wouldn't need any directions to find because it was the only thing near the docks that didn't smell of salt and fish.

"Good evening!" I called cheerfully entering the hut that barely passed as any kind of drinking establishment, the only responses I got from the patrons were looks of distrust, no one new came to these parts anymore and they had grown wary of strangers, especially ones cloaked and hooded.

I walked up to the bar and ordered a sake, throwing down the paltry 15 ryo that the barman demanded and furtively looked around the bar for the man I needed.

He made me before I made him though, he finished his drink and started to leave the bar. I didn't move to stop him but once I heard his footsteps echoing away on the dock I swallowed the rest of my drink and left after him.

It wasn't hard to keep myself out of sight since it was just one, probably drunk, man but the mist helped. Halfway along the dock he made a turn along a quay and climbed into one of the only boats docked at the port. It didn't even seem to be equipped with a gangway so the old sailor climbed along a rope that had been tied to the moorings and threw himself over the taffrail. I left him after that, he wouldn't be leaving this evening, the tide was only just starting to come in and slack water wouldn't be until tomorrow morning. I knew where he would be, I headed back to my own lodgings.

* * *

Early that same morning I found out someone else had marked me during my wanderings, it was the glow of candlelight between the floorboards I saw from my room upstairs that gave them away. I knew the proprietor of this establishment had already closed up shop and I could hear his snoring from across the hall.

Listening to their footsteps I heard two but a furtive look outside revealed a third presumably keeping lookout. I dropped from my window and attached myself to the outside of the building, gliding down to the outlook I noted he was not wearing any identifying marks of a ninja, he might not be the ringleader of this circus but he would probably have enough information about why this rabble were after me, I swiftly knocked him out his body making a sticky slapping noise as it dropped into the mud.

Swinging in through the open front door I saw the other two intruders had not even made it as far as the stairs, I threw two kunai at their necks, aimed to sever their spinal cord, the satisfying sound of one of them meeting their mark came just before the ring of steel on steel and the third turned around to reveal he was wearing a hitai-ate marking him as a nuke nin. I didn't recognise him from any bingo books so he must have been a new one.

"Jiraiya" he practically hissed "one of the so called sannin. There's a large price for your head in these parts"

That was enough information for me to know these guys were only after me for a bounty. Definitely good news, if this was a band brought together and sent after me with information I would be travelling to this area I would have known I did a lousy job covering my tracks, not to mention there could be others out there with the same information.

In the time it took to register that I had already started to perform hand signs for my Lions mane jutsu, the nuke-nin though threw the lamp he was holding before expelling some kind of gas, it acted as some kind of fuel for the fire in the lamp and I was quickly covered in flames, luckily my hair shielded me from most of it and my damp clothes the rest so I came out with the added bonus of mostly dry clothes.

I finished my jutsu and the man became bound in my hair which I used to compel him towards me at which point I made quick work of him.

I looked at the pooling blood of the first man I had taken out and I decided my welcome was probably worn out and, grabbing the other man outside, I made my way back towards the dock.

* * *

The old sailor woke with the sun in spite of how much he might have drunk the night before, as he rolled out of his bunk I slid a tankard of water across the table towards him.

Looking up at the sound a look of immense frustration crossed his face before he made his way over and took a seat across from me, he took a few long gulps from the water before asking "What is it you be wanting?"

"Passage to the land of fire."

"I don't go there. Used to go to Uzushiogakure before that was wiped out now I rarely go out at all 'cept to fish."

"You will be going there this time, I've checked your stores you have the maps and the instruments needed"

He eyed me warily before finally giving in, "It'll cost you."

"How much?"

"80,000 ryo."

I almost choked at the ludicrous price "Are you looking to buy another schooner old man? There's no way I'm paying that."

He stayed silent looking at me. He knew he held the cards here, I grimaced and started to haggle eventually getting him down to 50,000 ryo and in return I'd provide the food for the three day journey. I only had enough for four days for myself so I was going to have to go the last two days hungry.

It was just as the old captain was making preparations to set sail that my little stowaway started to wake up, I had bound him to a chair on one side of the deck and the captain knew enough of his own business to not ask any questions.

"Hey," I said, slapping his face gently "Wake up."

He came around groggily but the sight of my face seemed to scare him all the way back to full alertness.

"Weh-wh-where am I?" he stuttered

"On a ship, whether that remains the case depends on the answer to my questions."

He nodded.

"Who do you work for?" I started

"No one. A friend introduced me to this ninja guy who was out looking for bounties, said he'd done it before, that it was easy money. I was..." he started to tear up, "I was only supposed to be the lookout. I needed the money that's all"

"Shhhh now. Do you know Kirigakure?"

Again he nodded

"There's a small village just a half hours walk away, has a blacksmith there with no name on the shop, you know the place?"

There was a moment of hesitation before he said "The village with the inn that has a well inside?"

I nodded "You find that blacksmith, give him this," I pressed a silver coin into his hand "He'll see to it you find proper, well paying work."

He looked at me in confusion and I cut him away from his chair, he stuffed the coin into a pocket, his confusion turned to fear as I hoisted him up by his arms and brought his face close to mine "Just remember, you work for me now." I said before I threw him overboard. It was only a hundred yards or so to shore, easy enough to swim.

With the capricious nature that Kiri had adopted over the years it seemed I was always needing more information out of that city, he would become another string to that bow.

* * *

We made good time back to the land of fire, the sailor who's name I learned was Yasu told me the winds in this area could be unpredictable partly due to the whirlpools that protect the nearby Uzushiogakure.

After making land at a reasonably large port town I bid the captain goodbye and found, as my first order of business, an inn with a bird that could deliver a message to Konoha. I would encrypt the message using my usual cipher of course, too often these days birds were intercepted, usually by petty bandits but you could never be to careful in the information business.

The message sent and my first meal in days - my first hot one for weeks - consumed I started making my way back to Konoha. I'd still be giving the same information to the Hokage when I got there but in a position like the Hokage's the earlier you had information the better you could respond. It would take me perhaps two days from the port I'd disembarked from but they would swiftly pass. I found myself quite looking forward to speaking to Keiko again.

* * *

I made it to the gates of Konoha by mid afternoon the next day, record time even for me, I checked in with the guards at the gate and shot onward towards hokage's tower meaning to make my report but before I got there I spotted Keiko and Kakashi leaving the Academy and decided to make a detour.

"How about I take you to a training field and teach you a thing or two?" I had asked, no one had told me how advanced these brats were, I was going to teach them tree climbing but they already had that covered so I found them a training ground with a pond and got them to try water walking.

I showed them how to do it first of course, made it look easy for them. It was all the funnier when they fell in soaking themselves, made me wish I had a camera to capture the look on their faces.

"You kids know a lot for proto genin." I said to them, trying to distract them so they fell in again.

"We take the genin exams in a few days" Keiko called indignantly

"You do huh? Given any thought to who you'd like to be your Sensei?" I inquired.

That got them! They came up spluttering for air.

"We hadn't actually" Keiko said frowning, I wasn't sure whether it was at me or the question, he'd probably worked out I purposely distracting him he was a bright lad, after a few seconds his face lit up and he looked at me "What about you?"

"What about me kid?"

"Why don't you become my sensei?"

It was a decent question. Usually the genin were split into teams but I understood this year's batch was out of proportion anyway. I'd have to see the hokage about it though. I barked a laugh "Who says you'll pass anyway, buncha brats like you? No way."

They caught on quick with the water walking though, by the time I left almost an hour later Kakashi was only falling in when he was distracted and Keiko was oscillating between being ankle deep and actually standing on the water, the kid just needed to apply a little more chakra and he'd have it down.

* * *

Arriving at the hokage tower I opted for the window entrance rather than climbing the stairs, sensei didn't have anyone visiting so I wasn't interrupting anything, I slid in before greeting him.

"Dammit Jiraiya!" He exclaimed, twisting in his seat, "Why can you never use the door."

I ignored the question grinning, he knew it was just laziness and I just happened to be too lazy to think of an excuse. "Coming in to give my report sensei."

I gave my report, there was nothing too earth shaking going on apart from some troubles closer to home - it appeared some orphans were going missing - but with the exception of that my briefing was very… brief.

"These kidnapping need to be stopped before the civilians hear about it" Sensei muttered taking a drag of his pipe, "Is there anything particular about any of the victims?"

"Not that I've noticed, the only thing they seem to have in common is that they are all orphans."

"Hmmm, well if there's nothing else..." He left the sentence hanging.

"Well there is something sensei." I said, he looked up inviting me to continue "Have you considered who you're assigning this years genin to?"

"Yes" the Hokage confirmed, "This close to the exams they're pretty much all allocated to one Jounin or another."

"I was wondering if you might be willing to swap out one particular student." I started.

Sensei though was too sharp as usual "You want Keiko." It wasn't a question.

I nodded.

"I'm afraid that wouldn't be possible Jiraiya, you now how important your role as spymaster is and Keiko is advanced but he isn't equipped enough to travel the world with you, besides that do you really want to start up another team so soon after what happened to your old one."

With each word sensei said my stomach sank, he was right, it was a nice idea but the reality was Keiko probably wasn't prepared, and what would Minato think if I started a new team so soon after his teammates were killed in front of him so close to the end of the last war. I shook my head.

Sensei though seemed to see my turmoil and spoke up "There is something we could do. Keiko is, at the moment, assigned to become Saku's apprentice and enter into anbu with him. However. What if we were to take Keiko and add him to this team." He pushed an already open folder towards my and I smiled. That could work. That wasn't bad at all.

* * *

All too soon, and strangely not soon enough, the day of the exam arrived. Kakashi came by to pick me up as usual, he didn't seem excited but that he had come to pick me up 15 minutes earlier than usual gave lie to that. I took the opportunity to get a drink of water before leaving whilst Kakashi stood leaning by my door the entire time anxiously crossing, uncrossing and then recrossing his arms.

When we arrived at the Academy it seemed like Kakashi wasn't the only one anxious about the exam, practically everyone was there early and taking my seat and looking around the faces of everyone around me spoke loudly of their anticipation. Eventually Saku arrived, walking to the front of the class he cleared his throat though, for once, he didn't need to try and gain the class' attention because we were all ears.

"I just wanted to say, regardless of what happens in the exam it has been an honour to teach this year, those of you that fail," Here he cracked a rare smile, "Though I don't anticipate that will be many of you, will not be taught by me next year I have taken another assignment. With that being said, let us start the exams."

He began handing out a sheaf of paper he collected from a drawer in his desk to each student in the class and then walked back to the front. "You have 3 hours. Begin."

The exam was certainly thorough, it tested us on almost every aspect of what we had learned that year and many things that I assume would have been taught in previous years, luckily there was rarely a question that I was unsure of the answer to be that because of my frequent visits to the library or just information I had picked up over time.

By the time two hours had passed I was coming to some of the last questions and I risked a look around and saw that some people were visibly perspiring due to the stress, one student had almost gnawed all the way through their pencil. When I was finishing off some of my last questions I heard a rustle of papers next to me and saw that Kakashi had finished exam, I however finished the last question and double checked I hadn't missed any questions before double checking the answers I had given. There was no point not using the time we had allotted, it wasn't like we could leave early.

When Saku finally called for time there was a great exhaling of air like a balloon that had been left to empty. From there Saku Directed us outside.

The first test we had outside was projectile throwing, senbon had been added this year and it was something I had spent many mornings brushing up on since I was unfamiliar with their use. Luckily the exam did not judge you on time taken to throw just for accuracy, I still felt like my throwing movement wasn't as deft or smooth as it could have been but because I could take my time all of my projectiles hit the bullseye. Kakashi finished way before, me throwing projectiles to him came as easy as breathing apparently.

When we finally came to parring we were in for a surprise, instead of sparring against each other or even against Saku we had been matched up against one of the other teachers, it took a moment to bring up his name from the back of my mind, Kon, I did not think I had spoken to him before, the only thing I knew about him was that he taught the first years and he was a chunin.

In another twist in events I was the one called to spar first, I grimaced, it wasn't ideal I had never seen this Kon fight and would have liked to have seen a few people go first so that I could formulate a plan. Resigned I walked up to the sparring area.

Observing Kon as we initiated our seals of confrontation I noted what I could about him, he appeared to be in his early 20s, that seemed to indicate that he would progress no further in his ninja career than chunin since you would expect to have at least made special Jonin by that age. The next thing I noted was his build. He was a tank. He wasn't much taller than me, perhaps 5 foot 6 inches but his muscles rippled with each movement, as he formed his stance his fists remained clenched and held them up towards his abdomen, ready to be drawn back. At least it was easy enough to identify his style based off of that, I could expect plenty of strong punches and quick feints.

All too he quickly we started and Kon immediately started to advance his gait like a wave he rose and fell alternately standing and then almost crouching as he came towards me, he made a tough target to hit so I decided to allow him to make the first move, a vicious uppercut, I leaned backwards, barely avoiding it and sent a punch to follow his hitting his elbow, this immediately threw him off balance and he staggered backwards with his arm following it's trajectory behind him it had practically dragged him away.

I followed into the space I created and launched a punch at his shoulder which hit but it was like punching iron so thick were his muscles, it had almost no effect and all too quickly his guard was up again and instead of approaching me like he did before he feinted left and right before throwing a wide hooked fist to my leg, extending his entire arm. I flipped, literally, catching his arm at its full extension, the look of surprise on his face quickly turned to worry as he realised what this meant, as he tried to draw his arm back with me hanging on I shifted myself and brought both my legs down against his chest with all the force I could muster in my precarious situation, it knocked the wind from his chest and the force, combined with the inertia of him bringing his arm back knocked him from his feet and onto the floor where Saku called it, from my armlock position I could have easily broken his arm or dislocated his shoulder, not to mention the kicks I could land to his face.

I let go and stood up feeling very pleased with myself, Kon though looked very frustrated, I suspected he would be more careful with the rest of the class. Kakashi gave me a thumbs up with both his eyes closed in a way that seemed to imply he was smiling broadly.

My prediction panned out, none of the other students came close to winning against Kon though Kakashi came close to extracting a draw. When we had finished we were sent back inside for the final part of the exam, the ninjutsu test, I passed without even worrying, Kakashi and I had both practiced these 'Academy 3' ad nauseum and after I produced a bunshin Saku gave me my hitai-ate with a broad smile on his face, congratulating me with a hand on my shoulder.

Finally once everyone took their exam we were dismissed. My heart rose in my chest then, I didn't have to worry about exams anymore or even the academy, Kakashi took up step beside me as I very happily made my way to the exit of the academy and saw Sakumo, Jiraiya, Minato and Kushina all waiting.

"How's it going kid, that's a nice knickknack you got there." Jiraiya joked as we reached them.

Kushina crushed both me and Kakashi into a bone breaking hug as she congratulated the both of us on passing the exam.

"We were going to head somewhere to eat to celebrate, you guys have any preference?" Minato asked

"As long as it isn't ramen." Kakashi choked from his hug

"You aren't too young to die you know Kakashi" Kushina threatened but then Kakashi replaced himself with a stone nearby in a wise Kawarami.

Jiraiya laughed and said, "No need to fight I know a great Akimichi restaurant and I think they serve ramen as well"

Kushina seemed to have given in though she still sulked muttering "But ichiraku..." I don't think Jiraiya even heard.

"Are you sure we don't need to book a table Jiraiya, this is pretty late in the day." Sakumo asked

"Just leave it to me."

* * *

Apparently Jiraiya was famous enough to get his own table without reservation even though the restaurant was packed. Nobody talked much past offering congratulations for passing the exam - the food was just too good.

When we eventually left, Jiraiya and Sakumo splitting the bill, we were brought to a training ground.

"Well Jiraiya and myself have been talking today about what to get you boys for graduating and we think we have just the thing." Sakumo began, he brought a scroll out from behind him and passed it to Kakashi who looked at him questioningly but opened it when Sakumo indicated he should.

"Dad… this. Thank you." Kakashi said in reverance

"What is it Kakashi?" I asked

He turned to me, "Its the Sakumo dog summoning contract."

I wasn't sure what that was but Kakashi seemed over the moon with it, Jiraiya though saw my confusion and decided to explain.

"Summoning contracts are contracts between shinobi and an animal or creature, with them we can summon the creature bound to the contract to aid us in a task, Sakumo has the dog contract and his family have held it for generations making them one of the best clans at tracking with the help of their summons, up there with the Inuzuka clan. As for me I have the toad contract," he pulled an enormous scroll out from somewhere beneath his hair, "Minato signed it as my student and I'd like you to as well."

I didn't entirely understand but decided this was another one of those chakra things. Either way it seemed to be a huge honour judging by everyone's reaction. Jiraiya rolled out the scroll in front of me whilst Sakumo brought Kakashi over to the other side of the training field.

"You'll need to sign your name in blood here," he indicated a blank spot on the scroll, looking back through the scroll there only seemed to be Minato, and Jiraiya's name on it. I deftly cut my thumb and neatly signed my name.

"OK kid, here's the signs you need to summon, along with a drop of blood to complete the technique," He went through a string of hand seals "Need me to show it to you again?" He asked.

I shook my head, I memorised them the first time.

"OK then kid, let her rip!" He exclaimed giving me a thumbs up.

"Er, Keiko," Minato spoke up looking a little nervous, "Don't put too much chakra into it, that wouldn't be the best idea, at least for now." He looked at me calculatingly for a minute "Try for 20%"

Jiraiya was sulking about something but I ignored it, I assumed I just avoided some kind of practical joke, flashing through the handsigns I pressed my hand to the ground and a seal shot out around me, there was an explosion of smoke and a small red toad with blue markings appeared after it had cleared.

"Hey, what's this, who're you?" It exclaimed, I don't know what I was expecting but a talking toad wasn't it, I stood looking at it in shock for a few moments before Minato stepped in.

"Kosuke, this is Keiko the new Toad summoner." He explained.

"Ah, Pa mentioned something about a new summoner now that you mention it. So thats you huh?" He looked at me calculatingly before he relaxed again "OK, I'll head back and pass on the message you signed the scroll." so saying he disappeared in a cloud of smoke. I still hadn't even begun to come around to forming words.

I looked off towards Kakashi who was being mobbed, good-naturedly by dogs before I turned back to Jiraiya "Thank you." I couldn't think of anything else to say.

He grinned back at me "No problem kid, I'll introduce you to the more senior frogs another time, Ma and Pa will love to meet you and you'll need to see old man Gamamura too at some point."

I nodded, not recognising any of those names but I committed them to memory anyway, I looked down at my hands 'I can...summon toads?' I thought to myself

* * *

Kakashi and I arrived at the academy the next day somewhat nervous, we had all been told to come in later than usual so we could be assigned our senseis so when we walked in at a few minutes before 10 the class was almost full.

We had been a little bit on edge for the last few days anticipating this. We hadn't even considered the possibility of being split up but when Jiraiya asked us who we thought our sensei's would be suddenly it was all we could think of.

Once we had taken our seats Saku stood up from where he had been sitting behind his desk and started speaking.

"I will now be announcing your Jounin senseis," he announced "Please come to the front when I call your name."

* * *

AN: A cliffhanger! I know I know so mean, but I couldn't help it. I really enjoyed writing Jiraiya's segment of this chapter, I hope you all enjoyed reading it. See you in the next chapter.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

* * *

Saku began reading out names and members of our class headed to the front to be escorted out by their Jonin Sensei, team after team was called and members of our class gradually filed out. Eventually there was just me and Kakashi left, I looked at Kakashi with a nervous smile, perhaps we might be on the same team after all, he looked equally hopeful.

"As for you two," Saku spoke up from the front, "You're to meet your sensei at training ground 7, I understand that because of the odd class size this year something in particular has been prepared for you."

Kakashi rolled his eyes, I felt the same, he could have told us from the beginning and we'd already be there. We practically ran out of the door and down the hall to the exit.

Kakashi hadn't said anything about racing to the training ground but it became somewhat of an unspoken game between us as we kept amping up the speed. Training ground 7 was pretty far outside the center of the village and it was almost 10 minutes later when we arrived.

Minato was waiting. But he didn't look too happy. He welcomed us both with a nod before he started speaking "Normally at this point I'd have you introduce yourselves but since I already know both of you and one of you won't be here for too much longer it doesn't make sense to waste time." I practically heard both mine and Kakashi's ears stand to attention to the second part of that greeting. Minato grimaced before continuing, "Honestly I'd love to have you both but as a rule teams are 3 man units, occasionally a Jounin is allowed to select an apprentice which is what I've been able to agree with the Hokage. But I can only have one apprentice."

Both myself and Kakashi started to speak up, to protest but Minato silenced his both with a hand, "I've already spoken to the hokage about this at length. I agreed long ago with Sakumo that I would take Kakashi on when he graduated but the Hokage would rather I take Keiko considering the promise he has shown. This was the only solution we could find. A final test, the loser will go back to the academy to repeat the final year. I'm sorry guys I really am."

Kakashi and I were speechless, in the last 20 minutes we'd had our hopes allayed and then dashed in quick succession, eventually I was able to ask what the test would be.

Minato brought out a bell, "You will have until 2PM to take this bell from me, the one who does gets to be my apprentice." He wound up a clock before placing it on the floor, "Your time starts now."

Both Kakashi and I fled into the trees.

* * *

"This can't be happening," Kakashi complained, "We finally get a Jounin sensei, we're placed together and now this?"

I shook my head there had to be something else, something we were missing, a reason for this.

"Of course there's a reason," Kakashi spoke up, I hadn't realised I had been speaking out loud, "This is a test of Shinobi rule number 4."

"'A shinobi must always put the mission first'?" I quoted "You think they're trying to see which is stronger between our loyalty to each other or to the village?"

"It's the only thing that makes sense." He shrugged.

I didn't believe it, I had heard the Hokage talk about the will of fire, how it centered around your will to protect your friends, your family. This isn't a test he'd set up, it goes counter to his philosophy.

"How is either of us going to get the bell off him in the first place anyway?" Kakashi contemplated.

"Either way we're going to have to do something soon, Minato isn't going to leave us like this forever." I replied

"What do you mean 'we'?" Kakashi asked, "You heard him, only one of us can pass this test."

"Maybe," I conceded "But I'm not going to let a stupid test split us up, if it comes to it you can take the apprenticeship, it's not worth my friendship to you Kakashi." Kakashi looked stunned, he looked at me with some emotion I couldn't derive. Embarrassed I continued, "Besides Minato is a Jounin, do you really think we'll be able to get the bell from him acting alone? We might be the top of our class but we're still just genin."

Kakashi nodded at that, "So what's the plan?"

* * *

I jumped out of the trees to land opposite Minato, he gave me his full attention.

"Done with hiding? I suppose Kakashi's given you the first try." He said

I smiled and launched myself at Minato, I wasn't going to say anything that might give away what we had planned. Minato immediately dropped into his stance and engaged me. It only took the first few moments of our exchange for me to realise that the last time I had sparred against Minato he was holding back by a large amount, many of my strikes were deflected before they even came into proximity of their targets, though steadily I was forcing him back towards the decline that precipitated the forest on this side of the training ground. I was hard pressed to keep up with his hits myself however, especially his kicks.

Eventually one of his kicks broke my guard and I was thrown backwards through the air. Not ideal. I was hoping to at least get him to the tree line but he was close enough, I ran through hand signs as I stood up, not giving him the opportunity to see what I was preparing before I completed the jutsu "swamp of the underworld!" I called and Minato's eyes widened in realisation but it was too late.

I still wasn't good enough with the technique to turn the entire field into a bog but I could manage the area Minato was stood and because it was on a hill it created a small landslide. Minato struggled to extract himself from being already shin deep in the sticky slurry. By the time he did he was already in the forest proper and I leaped after him.

Inside the forest I found Kakashi had already engaged him, keeping him within the forest before he could escape, when he saw me coming he broke from Kakashi Long enough to create 2 shadow clones to delay me. Using the hair hardening technique jiraiya taught me I stretched my hair over my hands creating spiked gloves which I used to make quick work of the clones.

With the prospect of fighting the both of us and no escape from the forest Minato leaped backwards, further in, and was surprised when he was suddenly stopped by a web of ninja wire, the same moment he saw where the wire led he threw a tri pronged kunai into the distance, there was a flash of yellow light that flickered for a moment before Kakashi charged the wire with a raiton jutsu incapacitating Minato. I landed in the same web moments later cloaked in my white mane which offered protection against being zapped and grabbed the bell from Minato's unconscious body. I took the time to head into the forest to collect the unusual kunai Minato had thrown assuming he'd want it back.

* * *

Once we got Minato back to the training ground and he recovered from being zapped he stood up checked his belt and not finding his bell looked between the two of us.

"Well. Which one of you managed to get the bell?" He asked.

Kakashi and I both pointed at each other, "He did."

Minato sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "well you guys pass. Honestly I thought it would take a little longer than this. Seems like I've been slacking off."

Kakashi and I looked at each other "what do you mean Minato?" I asked

"Ah ah, that's Minato-sensei to you now. And you both pass. Getting the bell was never the point of this exam, the point was -"

"To work as a team" Kakashi completed, he scowled then, "You tried to drive us apart by telling us there was only one place available."

Minato nodded "Got it in one Kakashi."

"That's a mean trick Sensei" I complained.

"Well originally Kakashi was going to be the only one I was going to be teaching but I got you a few days ago without warning so I'm just giving a little payback." he said grinning, "You need to remember guys, no matter the situation, if you can't rely on your team you don't have a team. The team always comes first."

Kakashi and I nodded, suddenly I remembered the kunai Minato had thrown and I passed it to Minato who thanked me looking a little sheepish.

"What was that yellow flash, Sensei?" I asked

He scratched the back of his head "A new technique. It was too early to use it on combat really, still a prototype."

I nodded. I had felt the activation of a seal so I was more than a little curious but I let it go, I understood that new techniques were jealously guarded among ninja.

"Now who wants to eat at ichiraku's to celebrate?" Minato asked.

"You just want to go there to see Kushina." Kakashi groaned, seeing through Minato immediately.

Minato went a little red in the face but he tried to pretend he didn't hear him.

* * *

The next day we went to have our team picture and Minato was insisting I wear my Konoha headband.

"I know it's an honour to wear it Sensei, it just… Look at me, I don't exactly accessorise much." I explained, exasperated.

Minato though wouldn't budge and in the end I opted to wear it around my bicep. The next struggle was the team picture, Minato had insisted me and Kakashi stand in front and whilst I was shorter than Minato my hair was voluminous enough that it made up the difference, with Minato not budging and the cameraman losing patience an assistant was called to fetch 3 boxes, one which Kakashi stood on and the other 2 were stacked for Minato.

In the end the picture came out quite well and I personally requested 3 different prints. Minato also mentioned we would be getting another team photo once a third member joined us, according to him genin operated in 3 man cells with a Jonin leader and eventually a new person would be added to our team. Kakashi didn't seem too happy about that but I was strangely looking forward to a new member of our team. Minato dismissed us for the day and asked us to show up early the next day for our first mission.

* * *

When we arrived at Hokage tower I was practically dancing with excitement for our first mission. It was to my immense disappointment to find that the D ranks we would be doing for the immediate future were little more than glorified chores. That day found Kakashi and myself dutifully repainting the gates of Konoha under Minato's watchful gaze. It would have been good tree walking practice if we hadn't long since perfected the practice, without even that upside it was just laborious.

I had hope the next day but that mission had us delivering a message to an outpost no more than an hour from Konoha as the ninja flies.

It was a pattern that repeated itself until I was almost ready to lose my mind before finally, after a week, Minato called us to training ground 7 for some training.

"Good morning my lovely students" Minato greeted us, "There won't be any missions today. Instead I have some good news and some bad news."

"Good news first please sensei" Kakashi drawled.

"Very well then," he removed some brown colored paper from behind his back, "Today you learn your chakra nature"

Kakashi's hand almost reached out for the paper before he drew it back, I wasn't entirely sure what a chakra nature was but if it made Kakashi so excited it could only be good. First things first though.

"And what's the bad news?" I asked before we continued.

Minato seemed to become a little nervous "Ah, well, you see now that the war is over the Hokage has been convinced by Tsunade that every unit should have a medic," I nodded, considering what I had heard of the success of teams in the war that followed the tenant Tsunade espoused - that every team should have a medic - it only seemed to make sense that should be the case, but then I realised what that would mean, Kakashi though was still waiting for the rest of the news, "I already have my own studies to keep me up at night, Ko is unsuitable due to his abnormally high chakra reserves, so that leaves you Kakashi"

Kakashi's face, even with his mask went through several discernable emotions. First, shock, then disbelief, then distaste after which he looked to be about to argue but decided better after looking at Minato's firm expression he then looked frustrated and then finally resigned.

"You won't be required to learn all of a medics skills and knowledge Kakashi, just enough to provide aid in the field" Minato commiserated.

Kakashi didn't look any happier but he did nod accepting the assignment.

"Ok, you'll report to the hospital Wednesday evenings to learn what you need Kakashi, you will be working with a nurse named Miku."

Kakashi nodded again and seemingly eager to change the subject Minato returned our attention to the paper he had brought out earlier.

"This is chakra paper," he explained, "If you push your chakra into the paper it will tell you what elemental affinity you have, that is which element best suits your chakra. Jutsu in this element will be easier to learn but you can learn other elements most Jonin are competent in least two."

'Well. I am fairly sure I've not got an affinity for earth judging by my struggle learning swamp of the underworld' I thought as Minato passed us both a piece of paper each.

Kakashi went first, frowning down at his paper it crinkled to his fingertips, he looked up at Minato who nodded "A raiton affinity, but you probably already suspected that considering your use of electric ninja wire. It's your father's affinity as well if I'm not mistaken." Kakashi nodded in confirmation and then they both turned to me.

I looked down at my paper and urged some chakra into it, immediately it fell into 2 pieces and flew away from my hand, "A futon affinity." Minato said, nodding, "That's rare. You won't find many people knowledgeable in that affinity in Konoha." I frowned thinking that was going to mean a lot more reading but then Minato continued, "Luckily for you I'm one of them and what's more wind jutsu is strong against Kakashi's electric jutsu." He finished grinning.

We spent the rest of the day training and Minato sent us both home with separate tasks to do in our spare time to enhance our control of our chakra nature. Mine was to split a leaf using only my chakra.

* * *

I spend the rest of the evening and most of the morning trying to cut the leaf with nothing but my chakra but had made no headway at all to my frustration. I set out to the mission desk to meet Minato and Kakashi still practicing.

When I arrived I found to my suprise that Kushina was joining us on this mission, due to the war there had been an increase in bandit activity and we were being sent to deal with a particularly large band that was causing problems on one of the main trade routes. It was still a C class mission because they were still only bandits but Kushina was being sent along with us as backup if it should escalate. We met up at the gates of Konoha to follow a merchant who, unknowingly, was our bait. Really he should be grateful, he had left on the road passing a known bandit hotspot and had not even requested an entourage, luckily for him he was getting one anyway. Minato and Kakashi followed from a few hundred meters back in the trees on the left hand side and Kushina and I a similar distance back but on the right.

"Does the Hokage really anticipate trouble on this mission?" I asked Kushina, keeping one eye on the merchant

She shook her head "not really, but you're only a 2 genin squad so on a mission like this which is almost certainly going to involve some combat he decided to send me for insurance. Especially since it's your first C rank."

I nodded and for a while we talked about seals. I had been a little curious lately because the 4th grade shelf that Kushina sealed away had no puzzle to let me access it. It was starting to concern me since I was could see myself reaching the end of the scrolls already unlocked to me within weeks.

"Oh, don't worry about that" Kushina said, "I'll unlock it for you when you're ready."

Interesting. So there was some knowledge or a level of maturity that was required before unlocking the next level. There would be no point in begging Kushina to unlock it with that in mind.

We spent the next few hours in a companionable silence, we didn't want the trader or the bandits to know we were here so stealth was key, once we entered what was known as the hotspot area for the robberies we dropped from the trees and followed on foot since the trees rustling from us jumping through them with no accompanying wind was a dead give away.

Kushina spotted them before I did, they were some distance behind us, they must have closed in from deeper into the forest. We took back up into the trees to let them pass and once they did we took up the chase again. It was a large band, I counted perhaps 50 and looking to the other side of the road I could see more on Minato and Kakashi's side.

I almost felt sorry for the bandits, they were plainly ragged from lack of nutrition and many of them had clothes that looked like they had had patches sewn over patches. At some hidden signal from Minato to Kushina she turned to me and nodded to begin the attack.

Whilst it was the simplest ease taking the bandits down there were a lot of them and at some point into the fray I lost sight of Kushina, the bandits who had surrounded me grinned thinking me a small child and they had me outnumbered. I quickly disabused them of that notion, bones splintered, blood flew from my knuckles as I dispatched enemy after enemy and after perhaps half a minute I heard a voice whisper in my ear, "Causing trouble are we." and I felt a pain penetrate me, at first I only heard the wet 'plop' as the spear that had been shoved into me exited through the other side of my torso but the pain was quick to follow, I tried to grab the spear but my hands couldn't seem to for a grip, at first I thought it was because of the blood making the shaft slick but then I struggled to move my arms at all. Something on his spear had paralyzed me.

"You'll be coming back with me," His malevolent voice whispered from behind me. I didn't really have much choice but to go where he directed me with the spear and in the chaos of the fighting there was no way for Kushina to see me. After getting perhaps 50 yards away my captor seemed to grow bored with my slow pace and used the spear still skewered through my abdomen to hoist me into the air. My vision dimmed at the edges and I became aware that I must have screamed at that moment, despite the paralytic agent in my blood, for a heard Kushina shriek my name in the distance before my vision narrowed to black.

* * *

I awoke in an encampment, it appeared to be approaching evening so I knew I couldn't have been unconscious for long. Or at least I hoped that was the case. The spear impaling me had been wedged into the crevice of a large rock forcing me to remain standing, the paralyzing agent in my blood made it difficult but the pain that resulted from putting any measure of weight onto my wound was all the encouragement I needed to make it work. Looking down I realised I had lost a significant amount of blood, which explained why I was short of breath, without enough blood in my body to keep my brain active my heart was working overtime to pump blood around my body fast enough to keep everything working, I made an effort to try and slow down my heart, as it was it was only making me bleed out faster. It was at this moment the man who had captured me noticed I had woken up.

He was sat in front of a small fire, handily crafted so that smoke would not give it away. He was surrounded by men and I could see more behind them roaming the encampment. Whoever provided the information on this group was going to get a great deal of grief from me when I got back, we had been told there were maybe 60 to 70 in this bandit group but looking at them now and adding the ones that must have been killed back with Kushina there were easily 200 bandits. "Awake I see," He rasped, I thought he was whispering for covert reasons back during the fight but I saw now that his throat had been cut at some point in the past and he now struggled to speak. Worse than that though was the hitai-ate that he wore on his forehead from Kumo, it had a line etched through the village symbol marking him as a missing nin but being a ninja alone was enough to have put this mission up to at least a B rank. I was going to slaughter the information division if I made it back.

I grunted, I wasn't going to waste words in the state I was in, I spent what time I could looking around for something to use but the more I looked the more I despaired, short of being rescued there was nothing I could do.

"Not one for words are we?... Hmmmm, but we can help with that." He nodded to one of his men who walked over and cut into my right left shoulder, not particularly deeply, meant to cause pain rather than maim I thought. I clenched my teeth.

"On that knife is a paralytic to slow your heart." He swallowed, something that looked like he had trouble doing, "We wouldn't want you dying too quickly on us before we've had our fun." Some of his men laughed at that.

I realised if I wanted to get out of this in any fit state I needed to delay him so I asked him "Why?"

"'Why?' He asks," He spat into the fire before getting up, "I know what you're trying to do you know. Trying to delay the inevitable. But since you ask I will tell you as I continue my work on you. I'll tell you everything." He grabbed my hair holding my head up. I belatedly realised there was another knife in his hand he was holding to my face.

"Now, should we start with the face? It seems like something that should be built up to. Yes perhaps later, and I'll carve the insignia of your precious leaf into your forehead… But before that." The knife flashed and my flesh burned across my abdomen. "Yes it seems to have taken effect, don't pass out on me now boy, we have time now look." He slapped my face and brought my attention to my chest and stomach which now had a diagonal line across it, what was curious was my blood though which seeped slowly from it as if too viscous to escape. Not good I decided.

"The venom you have been infected with comes from Suna, it coagulates the blood, makes you bleed slower. Now you asked me why?" He had moved away at this point, to the side where I couldn't see him but I heard the rattle of chains. And then he was back. "I had a brother before the war. Perhaps you can tell where this is going. But I like to think I'm a simple man with simple motivations. Yes" He nodded to himself "Before the war I had a brother… and now I don't. Wake up." Suddenly I felt a tearing pain in my chest again and opening my eyes I saw to my horror that he had pushed a hook into the flesh at one side of the wound on my chest, the hook curled outwards from the cut, I gasped a mixture of shock and pain.

"He was better than me. Always better. He was sent on a special mission with two other chunin to steal a weapon from Konoha." I felt the pain rip through my chest again and I nearly lost my footing, I looked up away from it, breathing in heavily, some of the missing nin's men were looking on a little uncomfortably. "Of course they failed despite nearly making it to the border. So now I used to have a brother. Because of Konoha." Some part of what he was saying connected in my brain. A team that made it as far as the kumo border.

I was given a short respite whilst he connected the two hooks together with a chain.

"Then our idiot of a leader decided to end the war. Before I had my revenge. Well, I guess you can see how I got here now. The war won't be over so long as I have blood to bleed."

"Uh, boss, should we be doing this. He is a ninja but he's just a kid." I didn't see the man who said this but I heard the blunt sound of a fist making contact with something before a body fell into the fire, I looked up as someone hurriedly dragged him off and the missing nin looked around as if to ask if there was anyone else. Apparently satisfied he looked back to me and I saw his face for the first time. I had a moment of dawning realisiation when I saw that he looked like he could have been the face looking down on me almost two years ago when I had first met Minato and he had left me with one of Kushina's kidnappers. The face that looked blankly down onto mine with a kunai in its neck as the corpse's weight lay on me.

I also saw he was holding more hooks. He made short work of threading another 4 into me before my legs failed beneath me and he held me up by my neck. He grinned, "Looks like you're on your last legs." Some of his men may have laughed, I could barely see through the shadows at the edges of my vision but I knew there was only pain ahead. I resolved to make it quick. I leaned as far forward as I dared and into his ears whispered what I knew. I had killed his brother and I told him how. Accidentally killing yourself wasn't exactly a glowing sign of competency as a shinobi. I told him what he looked like, his hair color, his sunglasses in case he didn't believe me. As I leaned back I saw he did, his face was set, he was done playing games, he attached the chains to some logs that were off to either side of me. They were connected to some kind of mechanism, I didn't see much more for when the ninja directed a man to begin and I heard a cranking noise in the background I blacked out as my flesh began to be ripped from my body.

* * *

I was in hell. That was my first thought, I came back to semi consciousness to an intense feeling of malice, glanced down for a moment and resolved to not do so again. Instead I tried to raise my head and saw that everything was alight and there was screaming, against the fire though I saw a red aura, someone shadowed within it. There was an explosion some distance behind me and in the light I saw what might have been Kushina, but different. I vomited and could not tell if it was the nights darkness that closed in or the darkness of unconsciousness. The outline of Kushina against red was all I saw before the malice and rage in the air intensified. If I could have moved I would have ran. Instead I let the darkness take me.

* * *

AN: Easily the hardest chapter so far to write, especially the first half that's partly why this took so long the other part being I had some planning to do for the next few years of this story before I tied myself up in plot holes. Thank you again for the reviews. I hope you enjoyed. See you in the next chapter.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

* * *

Pain reached me in bursts, I was thrown between darkness and a red mist of pain with no escape from either, first my chest and then my side in small jostling thumps. Occasionally sound reached me, it might have been that I occasionally broke from the depths of unconsciousness or that I was awake all along and too tired to hear what was being said.

"Minato… oh god… bleeding… Konoha… faster" I heard more but the words bled through me like a sieve, eventually it all went silent or perhaps I had passed out again.

An indeterminable time later somewhere distantly in my slumber I eventually felt something pull my abdomen, kind of in a painful way but it felt so distant and I couldn't pay attention, I was so sleepy.

* * *

The first time I really woke up it was night time I tried to scratch an itch on my chest but found one of my arms had been bound and when the other hand reached my chest it found it encased in bandages. It was only a few seconds after this that everything that happened came back to me, it seemed even chakra couldn't heal a bifurcated abdomen straight away. I couldn't sleep the rest of the night and I lay there going over the events of the mission over and over in my head. Why hadn't I sensed the missing nin? I can usually sense people with high chakra reserves. Inevitably my mind kept going back to being tortured. It was my first experience actually being tortured though I remembered having training on it in my previous life. If you couldn't take a quick way out most advice was to repeat a word or phrase in your mind or out loud to the exclusion of all else because inevitably you will say something in the haze that torture can subject you to you could say anything so to repeat something innocuous was the safest way to protect the information you had. I was only glad it hadn't gotten that far. Astonished I was alive, I had thought myself beyond saving when I saw the flesh being ripped from my chest cavity.

Eventually morning came, I watched the sun light the sky from the window of my room and shortly after that Tsunade came into my room after noticing I was awake.

"You have luck in quantities hitherto unheard of kid, I'll leave your full injury report until later because you'll be here for a while so here are the headlines. You had a puncture wound in your abdomen that somehow hit nothing but a smaller vein and your appendix which we removed, the brunt of the damage though was to your abdomen where your entire upper chest was degloved and much of the underlying flesh was ripped and shredded." she shook her head, "When you arrived back here we put you on a blood transfusion but we almost couldn't get the blood into you fast enough. You'll be staying in the hospital for another week yet, if you're wondering what day it is it's been 3 days since your mission."

I nodded, Tsunade looked angry enough that I didn't want to say anything that would get her more irate.

"Since you've been asleep we've taken the opportunity to perform many of the medical examinations you would have gone through on returning from the mission, they'll be in later today."

I nodded again but wanted to ask a question, "What about everyone else?"

She scoffed, "split in two down the middle and he still wants to know about his team," she muttered, "Kushina had some burns but she'll be out later today, she's been coming by to see you but..." she gestured in my general direction "Minato and Kakashi got out mostly unscathed. Kakashi will probably be by as soon as visiting time starts, can't get two minutes without you guys being under my feet. Minato might not be by anytime soon, I hear he's raising hell to the Hokage and the intelligence division in general though I don't know the details and don't care. Try not to move, the bandages will be itchy but don't touch them, I'll send someone to change them tomorrow."

I filed away all that information and whilst I was Tsunade must have walked up besides my bed.

"And kid?" I looked up at her and shrunk back at the look of fury she was giving me "If you ever come into my hospital in that state again, I'm going to beat you back to health."

I nodded furiously and Tsunade stood up sighing and left saying she would be back later with my examination results.

* * *

Kakashi arrived just as Tsunade said with the start of visiting hours and breathed a sigh of relief seeing me awake. In truth he looked like he wanted to hug me such was his relief. Instead he took a seat beside my bed.

"Minato is blitzing the information division because of…" he took a look at my bandaged body and gulped, "what happened."

"I heard from Tsunade. I was thinking I might do the same back when I was propped up on a spear by a missing nin" I said darkly.

"You should have seen Kushina, she was the reason we knew there was something wrong. We heard your scream of course but when Kushina couldn't find you she kind of went crazy," he shuddered, "Minato had to calm her down and by then we'd lost your trail, there were just bodies everywhere."

I nodded, that explained why it took so long for them to find me.

"Ko. About what happened to you. Are you ok?" I knew he wasn't talking about my physical health. I thought about it before I have my answer.

"I don't think I'm the same person than the one that was sent on the mission but…" I shrugged, "I would not like myself to become dyed in the colors of the events of that day. I would prefer to be defined by how well I can withstand such hardships." I said frowning down at myself.

Kakashi seemed to see how uncomfortable I was and changed the subject "Minato should be here later today, he's asked me to let him know if you wake up."

I smiled "I wouldn't like to be on the other side of an angry Minato, I almost feel sorry for the information division. Almost."

Kakashi nodded seriously, "I've seen it first hand. Scary"

* * *

Kakashi left close to midday and it was approaching late afternoon when Minato arrived looking surprisingly severe with Tsunade in tow.

"Hey Minato, no need to look so upset, look I'll survive, I'll be fine." I grinned looking between Minato and Tsunade when their expressions didn't change at my joke. I realised there must be something else.

"Your results came back kid. You have a serious problem" Tsunade began.

I tried to sit up, bad news was always better taken sat comfortably. "What's the problem doc?" I asked trying for some levity.

"Well the good news is your injuries are fine, the poison you were infected with was a common Suna variant I invented the antidote for in the last war. Your physical injuries will heal given time. The bad news is your chakra imbalance" I frowned. I knew I had a large amount of yin chakra but I didn't realise it would be a problem, "you have such a large amount of Yin chakra it's forcing your body to grow at an incredibly accelerated rate, but you already knew that, the problem it isn't slowing down, it actually seems like it's speeding up since you started using chakra more often. At its current rate you'll be around 8 feet tall in 2 years but you won't live that long, a body your age growing so quickly will tear itself apart. Until we can figure out a solution I am removing you from the mission roster and banning you from training."

I looked at Tsunade shocked. I couldn't stop training, or taking missions, I started to protest but Minato interrupted, "She's right Ko. I've seen the results myself and I've already spoken to the Hokage."

I sat back reeling in shock

"You'll be staying here for another week to recover from your injuries but after that until a solution is found you'll be on long term leave from your shinobi responsibilities." Tsunade said. She seemed to see I understood and she left me with Minato.

Minato for his part sat next to my bed and began talking about other things, probably trying to distract me from my situation but it was all I could think of. A pit had opened in my stomach and it felt like I was falling in. After a few minutes I turned to Minato.

"Could you get Kushina to bring me all of the scrolls on sealing I have access to." I said suddenly. I looked at Minato apologetically, I belatedly realised I had interrupted him.

Minato smiled "Sure thing, I'll ask her to bring them around first thing in the morning."

I couldn't think of a single seal in the scrolls that might help but I knew if there was any way to fix a problem with this magical thing people called chakra I could probably find it in something equally magic like fuinjutsu.

* * *

Kushina brought me the scrolls the next day only there were more than I remembered, when I mentioned this she nodded muttering "right they won't have told you yet." She went to the door and closed it and then sat down next to my bed.

"Have you heard of Biju Kei?" she asked, it rang a bell I had heard of it somewhere in some book in the library.

"Aren't they chakra demons?" I ventured, I had dismissed most of the scroll dealing on this subject because at the time I had considered it some kind of fanciful tale.

"Something like that," Kushina confirmed, "To restrain them and stop them from killing thousands we seal them away in the only thing strong enough to hold them - people. Those people are called jinchuriki. Most of the hidden villages have one though I don't know if they're all accounted for at the moment. Anyway, the leaf village has the nine tailed fox demon."

I nodded frowning not sure where this was going.

"Do you remember what you saw during the mission? When we came to rescue you?" she asked.

I did, I remembered great malice, a visible red chakra that seemed corrosive even to my chakra sense. I nodded, "Which one of us has the nine tailed sealed in them?" I asked

Kushina smiled sadly and said "It's me, and it's part of the reason I've unlocked the next grade of seal scrolls for you, these scrolls deal mainly with the sealing of biju and something called the eight trigrams sealing style but I couldn't unlock it for you until you were told about me. Luckily," she grimaced looking again at my bandages, "Or unluckily for you with what happened on the mission Kakashi and you have both been given clearance to know about my little problem."

I laughed a little at hearing her describe it like that "Doesn't sound like a problem to me Kushina, if you weren't as awesome as you are I wouldn't be laid here, I'd probably still be skewered on some rock still." I joked a little but it was true.

Kushina smiled, "Thank you Kei."

I felt a little embarrassed as I didn't feel like I had done anything worth thanking me so to hide the fact I through myself into the scrolls in front of me, Kushina laughed a little at my discomfort and said she would be back later.

* * *

I spent every moment that remained in that hospital bed reading through scrolls trying to come up with a solution, the problem was there wasn't any scroll that went into how to limit your own chakra, after all why would someone limit their own chakra? When the week was up and my bandages were removed for the last time I found myself stood in front of a mirror in Tsunade's examination room examining the scar I now bore across my abdomen. It was worse around the chest area where white, shiny skin stretched eventually bleeding into the darker coloured skin around it, lower down it was a pencil thick line that ended about an inch lower than where the spear impaled me.

"I'd clear you for light exercises but that would probably exacerbate your chakra problem," Tsunade mused, "I'm going to recommend that you get as much rest as possible for the foreseeable future, at least until we figure that problem out."

I nodded glumly.

* * *

I was still getting used to the idea of no longer being able to train when I wanted to when I arrived back at my home where I found Kushina and Minato waiting.

"We know about your chakra issue and with you having some spare time on your hands we've decided to induct you into our secret sealing project." Kushina explained,

I sat down opposite them looking at the incomprehensibly complicated seal laying between us, "This wouldn't be related to that thing that happened during our genin test would it? The thing with the yellow flash?" I asked.

Judging by Minato's flinch it was and Kushina rounded on him "You tried to use the seal before it was even ready?! Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Kushina suddenly remembered what she was talking to me about though and turned back and nodded confirming, "this is the same seal, it was originally created by the second Hokage but we've been trying to modify it for Minato's purposes and having a little trouble and we figure having another brain looking at the problem might make things clearer."

"I see," I said nodding still transfixed by the seal, "I'll see what I can do but it'll take me a while just to understand how this works."

Kushina laughed "Don't worry about trying to understand it, the second Hokage was a genius and so is Minato but even he only understands around 80% of it even after all this time, just take a look at it over the next few days and let us know if you see anything that doesn't seem right."

I did a double take "You're going to leave this here with me?" I asked

"We've really hit a wall at the moment so some time away will probably do us some good, we'll be back in 3 days - we've got a short messenger mission to take care of - so we can listen to your thoughts then." Minato said and I must have become transfixed with the seal again because when I next looked up they had gone.

I had too much to do despite not being able to do much so I analysed the scroll without sleep for 2 days making notes on it's design, function and flaws. It seemed Minato was trying to adapt it so that he could use it and so that it fit on a Kunai's handle, neither seemed easy tasks with the size of the seal and the way in which it had been designed for its original user. The function was something that I found my mind shrinking back on several times trying to comprehend it, it was no wonder no one really understood the seal what it was designed to do was create what my old world would have called a wormhole with chakra, essentially punching a hole in space with chakra alone - I think this may have to go down as the most ridiculous use I have seen for chakra - and then pulling through the body of the user. Interestingly whilst I could understand the usefulness of it being an instantaneous transfer it did not need to happen straight away, or at least it seemed like it and slowing down a certain element of the seal might result in a kage bunshin effect with a chakra construct in your own image appearing on the other end of the seal for perhaps a few minutes before you were pulled through as well. By the time I felt I almost fully understood the seal and had written down my notes on improvements and possible new functions I was struggling to even sit up straight I was so tired, satisfied with my work I made to retire to my futon but I didn't even make it that far.

* * *

"Ko!... Ko!" I blearily woke up staring into a blurred face, luckily the blonde hair gave it away.

"Minato sensei?" I groaned sitting up and wiping my eyes.

"What were you doing sleeping on your living room floor, you had me worried." Minato remonstrated.

I shook my head to bring me back to alertness, what was I doing on the floor? "I was working on your seal." I replied, "I think I figured it out."

Minato looked at me skeptically, "I think you might have just dreamt that." he said chuckling.

Had I? Kushina was here as well but she hadn't said anything yet, she had seen the notes in my still open notebook and I remembered it wasn't a dream.

Kushina looked at me the color dropped from her face a little, "Kei, how do you know this stuff?"

"What do you mean it's in the scrolls you gave me?" I said confused

She shook her head, "Not that, these formulas, some of these seem to be calculating energy from mass and it's acceleration but the rest…" She passed the notebook to Minato, "Maybe you'll be able to make better sense of this."

Minato started looking at the notebook and I sat quietly with Kushina sitting down next to me whilst we waited, Minato's brow grew more and more furrowed in the quiet 10 minutes that follows, occasionally pulling out a scroll himself as if double checking something before he turned to me.

"I think I understand about 80% of what you've written Ko, which is about on par with the scroll made by the nidaime so that makes sense. You'll have to explain some things to me."

So I guided Minato through the math behind the seal, why it wouldn't work as it was, how the seal worked in principal - at least in layman's terms, I wasn't sure I fully comprehended how it did what it did either - and the steps the seal went through every time it activated. I thought I might have been going too fast as I even took him through some of the formulas for physical reactions from my old world but he seemed to connect them in his mind as if he had already expected something of the sort all along. I thought myself intelligent but in these moments with Minato I could really tell I was a long way away from being anywhere near as fast as he was and comprehending concepts and then applying it to what he already knew. I even showed him my idea for slowing or delaying the transition and how it might be done simply by rotating one facet of the seal almost like a clock and Minato looked at me in awe when we had finished, I halfheartedly rubbed the back of my head not entirely sure what to do with my hands.

"Well what's the verdict?" Kushina spoke up. She had started to fall asleep as soon as we started talking numbers.

"With what Ko- er, I mean Kei," Minato modified seeing the look on Kushina's face, "Has worked out I think we might have this this seal complete in just a few weeks." He grinned as he closed the notebook with one hand.

Kushina suddenly perked up again and grabbed me in one of her patented bone crushing hugs, "I knew you'd know Kei, I just knew it." I tried desperately to seek assistance from Minato to escape the asphyxiation I found myself in but he nervously avoided my gaze.

* * *

I spent the rest of the week reading trying to figure out a way of dealing with my chakra issue and I started to find a promising lead in some of the newer scrolls Kushina had granted me access to, specifically the ones related to the eight trigrams sealing style. After all if it could seal away huge constructs made out of chakra why couldn't it store some of mine away, it seemed particularly promising since some of the example seals didn't seem to be designed to completely lock away the chakra but to leak some back over time, I figured if I could find a way of adapting such a seal to myself for the Yin half of my chakra I could essentially limit my Yin chakra as much as I wanted to.

Kakashi and Minato visited most days with Minato insisting that even though I was out of commission at the moment and couldn't attend meetings at the training ground there was no reason to leave me out of daily team meetings and rearranged to have them in my living room. I gave him updates on where I was in figuring out my issue and he gave advice where he could though he did say he was only beginning to learn the eight trigrams sealing style himself. Kakashi for his part gave me a great deal of comfort simply by coming to visit, I had begun to feel useless staying at home all day but by coming to visit me he distracted myself from myself.

It was only after around 2 weeks of this that I felt I had a workable solution, it was a variation of what the scrolls described as a four symbols seal but modified so that it would only hold back Yin natured chakra, showing it to Kushina she had nodded and confirmed that it should work as a solution to my problem but with no one to test it one and issues of the body being outside her experience she suggested setting up a meeting with Tsunade.

It was a few days later when I got the opportunity to have a meeting with Tsunade, apparently she had been busy creating a new division called the medic corps, whilst having a very sparse membership at the moment she was hoping to draw more students of medicine in so that the standard of shinobi medicine could be raised.

When I arrived at the hospital she very quickly grabbed me and pushed me into a room.

"So I hear you've figured out a solution to your Yin production levels?" She asked, she wasn't one to waste words.

I confirmed I had and laid out what I had in mind with a copy of the seal I had created layed out on her desk, she took two moments to look at it before turning to me.

"I hear you're a sealmaster so usually I'd defer to you in this area - I'm no master of seals myself. But since you'd probably push ahead no matter the risks I thought ahead a little and brought someone with a more independent eye."

Tsunade gestured to the windows where, crouched and wearing his trademark grin, Jiraiya was stood.

"How's it going kid?"

* * *

AN: Another suprisingly hard chapter, hopefully these get easier. Not too much action but I hope you enjoyed. See you in the next chapter.

Bonus round: Review responses part 3: Electric Boogaloo

Had some quite positive reviews recently, thanks for that, there were some reviews that indicated that a chapter wasn't any good or disappointing but didn't give a reason why which doesn't really help me preventing the same issue happening again in the future. I suspect the issue is the same issue I myself fear having never written anything longer than a few sentences - that the pace may become laborious or too quick or that characters sometimes act out of character. There was a super long review saying they couldn't get past chapter one for a bunch of questionable decisions relating to Keiko's character but most of them were explained later or in one case early on in the first chapter like Minato apologising for burning down his orphanage - it's literally the third thing Minato says to him. If you can't get through the first chapter or even fully read it I can't really help.

Someone said Hokage should be capitalised - absolutely right and at some point I'll go back and edit the chapters already done, I've made extra sure I have in this chapter. Thankyou for that.

Oh there was a great review about Keiko acting immature considering he's actually 120+ years old and not a child - this may be my fault! I have tried a few times to imply this in some places (the one springing immediately to mind being when Minato is walking Keiko to the academy) that Keiko may be old mentally but his brain is still the brain of a developing child and the chemicals going around in his brain will on occasion make him act more excitable as if he were a child but I might not have made this as clear as it should have been. As for the forgiveness stuff Keiko can see the reasoning behind why they did what they did, he's even said he might have handled the situation in a similar way, he still felt betrayed though, especially from Minato which was why he had a private word with him but Keiko feels you can't just hold onto a grudge when someone has done something you could even imagine yourself doing and then even apologising for it.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

* * *

Jiraiya spent some time looking at the seal before grunting and turning to Tsunade, "It's definitely not a seal I'd normally think of but for the problem the kid has it's pretty much perfect. I think there might be an opportunity for improvement though."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow, "And what would that be?"

"Well your strength of a hundred seal basically takes chakra and stores it right? Why couldn't we do the same with Ko?"

Tsunade seemed to consider it before she shook her head, "Apart from the chakra control required the seal constantly keeps you low on chakra. OK for a medic but for a front line fighter? Not what the kid needs."

Jiraiya deflated a little, "Well then Ko I'd say this is pretty much perfect then, good job adapting this by the way, I always struggle to manipulate Uzumaki style seals for different uses and using this design you can restrict or open up your yin chakra production at will."

I smiled accepting his praise and said, "I'll need some help applying it since it will be on the base of my neck, do you want to help."

"What, you think I've got nothing better to do with my time?!" He said incredulously before breaking into a grin, "Sure thing kid, set up the seal and I'll drop by around 5."

"It will need to be done here at the hospital, we can't be sure it's entirely safe until after it's applied so you'll need help on hand should anything go wrong." Tsunade interjected.

Jiraiya thought for a moment before clicking his fingers, "Do you still have that room set up for when the, er, seal needs transferring?" He said cryptically.

Tsunade rolled her eyes "The brat knows about the nine tails and yes it's still there, I'll take Ko and get him prepped."

* * *

It was a good thing Jiraiya had decided to come back later in the afternoon. Or perhaps he knew looking at the array how long it would take to write the unsealed version across the floor of a room, in some places it had even stretched up the walls.

In the end I was left waiting for him to arrive since I had drawn the seal across the room without thinking about my position and had ended up trapped in the middle of the room with the seal written around me. I daren't try and leave in fear of messing up some part of the seal so I was forced to sit and wait. I could see Tsunade barely holding back her laughter behind a glass window in an adjoining room.

When Jiraiya finally arrived he took one look at where I was before laughing hysterically, "Rookie mistake kid" he got out between bouts of laughter. Eventually he calmed down and took a look around the room at the seal, after a few moments he must have decided it passed inspection because he gave a short nod and said, "Good work kid."

"That's all well and good but how're you going to get to me without messing up the seal." I groaned.

With a smirk Jiraiya took a step back before flipping upside down and sticking himself to the ceiling. I felt myself imploding with embarrassment, I should have thought of that.

Jiraiya made his way over and, standing directly above me, he wrote the final part of the seal on the base of my neck. My hair had been taken out of the way with an improvised topknot.

"Ready" he said, his hand poised over my neck.

"I guess" I replied, I had never applied a seal like this before, much less to myself.

"Fuin!" Jiraiya exclaimed and I felt an odd sensation I can only describe as being similar to my ears popping due to altitude but taking place somewhere in the middle of my head. It made me dizzy for a moment but I quickly regained my equilibrium and was left to feel the tickling sensation of the remainder of the seal making its way from the floor and up my body.

Apart from the brief disorientation it didn't seem to have any detrimental effect on me. Tsunade came bustling into the room anyway followed by Miku and Kakashi, I had almost forgotten he was doing medical training Wednesday evenings. He greeted me with a nod but seemed distracted watching instead tsunade's hands which were running over my upper body with chakra glowing in a nimbus around them.

"Do you feel OK Ko?" Tsunade asked, I responded with a nod.

"Could you try performing a jutsu for me? doesn't need to be anything complicated." She requested, one hand now over the seal the other over my stomach.

I performed a quick hand sign and Tsunade was staring at a second Jiraiya, I smiled at her.

"You can drop it now, we don't need two of him." She made a few notes on a scroll before looking back at me again, "There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with your chakra manipulation or your yin chakra production, the seal seems to be working as intended and acting as a sort of dam for the yin chakra your body creates. With this seal you'll still see an accelerated growth rate but it will be slowed and it should top out in around 6 years time. So whilst you probably won't get any taller than you are when you're 11 by the time you reach that age you will be…" she made a few quick brush strokes on her scroll before making a low whistle. "Between 8 and 9 feet tall"

"But my body won't rip itself apart like it was going to before?"

Tsunade shook her head.

"And I go back to training and missions?"

"... You'll be taking weekly medical exams for the foreseeable future but… sure kid." Tsunade handed her scroll to Miku, "Take the brat to an examination room and give him the standard medical." she said before leaving the room with Jiraiya in tow.

"She doesn't really mean it when she calls you a brat." Miku said conciliatory.

"I know, she's always been like that, she cares much more than she pretends she does." I replied.

I followed Miku to an examination room and talked to Kakashi on the way, he seemed to be enjoying his medical training, a sentiment which Miku confirmed saying that if anything his interest has intensified since our last mission.

Once I was finished at the hospital Minato met me outside, he was speaking to Jiraiya but turned to me when I approached.

"Hey Ko, I heard your seal went well, I was just on my way to let Kakashi know we'll be meeting at training ground 7 tomorrow as usual, I've got a surprise for you both." He said grinning.

"Oh," I said glancing down at the tri-pronged kunai at his waist, "It wouldn't have anything to do with that seal I helped you with would it?"

Minato put a finger to his lips "shhhhh" he said before disappearing in a shunshin.

Jiraiya turned to me, "Remind me when I next see you I still need to take you to see the toads." Then he too disappeared in a shunshin.

Arriving home I examined my shelves of fuinjutsu scrolls for the first time since getting back from the mission and saw that there was a puzzle… of sorts... for grade 5. A blank scroll. No clues or hints just a blank scroll. I shrugged my shoulders assuming there would be something in the previous scrolls that might help and went to get some sleep.

* * *

Kakashi arrived at my house the next day bright and early but I was already training outside, it felt good to finally be able to stretch myself after the weeks I had spent basically grounded, he wanted to take a look at the seal and after I consented he pushed apart large armfuls of my hair to see the back of my neck.

"It doesn't look like much" He said skeptically

"Appearances can be deceiving, that might be the most complicated seal you will ever see." I replied

He hummed non-commitantly and shortly after we departed for the training field.

* * *

Minato was waiting for us when we arrived with his trademark grin.

"Today I thought we'd have a little catch up before we go grab a mission, so how have you been doing with your chakra natures?"

Kakashi Held up a leaf and I could see electricity lighting up through the veins of the leaf before it suddenly became too much and it combusted, he threw what remained to the side in disgust. Then they turned to me. I wouldn't be telling anyone but this was the one exercises I still dared to do when I was banned from training. As a result I could make a small jagged cut that went through perhaps a quarter of the leaf.

Minato nodded looking pleased. "That is more progress than I expected to see. It takes many Jonin months to make the progress you have made, now as for me i've got a surprise…"

Minato pulled out one of his tri-pronged kunai and threw it, disappearing a moment later in a yellow flash and reappearing where his kunai was. Kakashi's jaw very nearly dropped enough to take his mask off and to be fair even I, despite knowing what was coming, was impressed - it was like short range teleportation.

"That's not all though!" Minato exclaimed and, twisting a part of the kunai handle, he threw the it again but this time when there was a yellow flash a second Minato appeared who through another kunai and a third Minato appeared. That seemed to be the limit though as I was beginning to notice golden arcs of light jumping across the skin on all the Minatos present, something Minato confirmed moments later when, in a final yellow flash, only the last Minato remained standing.

"I can delay the teleportation and leave a kind of clone in my place but 3 seems to be the limit before the technique starts to lose stability, there's another problem as well since if any one of the… mes get injured that injury will still get carried over when the technique completes." He explained to us.

Kakashi was looking at Minato now with something approaching hero worship though you'd have to know him to recognise it. Eventually after a few more demonstrations we set off for another mission. Or at least Kakashi did, I stopped Minato before he shunshined to meet us at the tower.

"Sensei, about the last mission, there was something strange." I began

Minato cocked an eyebrow "Strange how?"

"I'm usually able to locate people, or at least shinobi by their chakra, civilians and bandits usually have too weak of a… signal I guess and I struggle to sense them. The ninja that attacked me though I couldn't sense him at all." I explained.

Minato looked a little surprised, "You can sense chakra? That's at least a chunin level skill. Unfortunately for you most shinobi at chunin or higher learn to hide their chakra from sensors by habit and that missing nin was once ranked a Jonin," He shook his head, "I wouldn't expect our best sensors to pick up someone of that caliber unless they were a hyuga. The mistake you made was to get separated from Kushina, you got overconfident and lost sight of the mission." He finished reprimanding me.

I looked down suitably chastised, "Yes sensei"

"No more of that, Let's get out next mission."

* * *

"A D rank sensei?" I groaned

We had been assigned a mission transporting iron from a refinery to local blacksmiths, nothing too difficult but even for me the loads we were carrying were ludicrous.

"I wouldn't want your muscles atrophying with all that rest you've had." Minato joked.

I had no idea how blacksmiths got through so much iron, it was late afternoon before we were even reaching the back of the store we were supposed to transport and I was feeling the pain of carrying them in my bones. Kakashi looked ready to drop but perked up every time Minato encouraged us.

When we had finally delivered the last one I took the opportunity to look around at the wares of the blacksmith. I'd never thought myself a specialist in weapons but that didn't mean I didn't know how to use them. Many of the weapons in this shop just didn't feel right when I ran my hands over them or even in the rare cases when I picked them up.

I decided not to choose any at that moment but I made a mental note to return when I had more time, for now though we had to return to the tower to report our mission complete. By the time we had gotten up to the mission desk I felt every bit as tired as Kakashi looked, I wasn't surprised that once we had finished and Minato told us he would meet us the next morning Kakashi decided to head home.

I took some time walking back through the tower, idly thinking about some of the seals I had been reading about, when I reached the entrance I was nearly knocked down I was so surprised, I giant of a man fell from the sky and landed in the dust in front of me, I quickly realised it was Jiraiya though, the hair was a dead giveaway.

"Oh hey kid, sorry didn't see you there." He said

"Do you usually take jumps from hokage tower?" I asked sourly.

"Only when Sensei isn't busy." He replied

I wasn't sure what he meant but suddenly a thought from the back of my head pushed itself to the fore, "You said to remind you about… Ma and Pa?" I finished making the last sound like a question. I couldn't remember in my tired state what it was about but I seemed to remember it was important.

"Oh right yeah!" He exclaimed slamming a fist into his other palm, "Lets go now."

"Now? but - "

I didn't get any further, Jiraiya's hands moved in a blur, there was an outpouring of chakra and I was enveloped in smoke.

* * *

I coughed waving away the smoke but then realised it wasn't the smoke I was choking on; it was the air.

It was like the air itself was thick enough you could drink it like a soup, it took me a few seconds to realise it was suffused with chakra.

I looked to Jiraiya who grinned at me, "Welcome to Mount Myoboku kid, wait here I'll go get Pa" I nodded dumly and as he sprang away I scanned the ethereal place he had taken me.

The area around where we were was like something out of a painting, it was a landscape I could have never imagined existed in reality.

Huge spikes of stone became mountains and others wilted, waterfalls springing forth from many of them, closer at hand huge statues of toads prostrate in what looked like meditation stood. Life-like but very ancient if the moss gathering across them was any indication. Before me in the valley stretching in front of me huge mushrooms grew, I could not gauge their size for they seemed too large to be credible.

It was too much all at once so I returned to analysing the air and the chakra I could feel thrumming through it. It was a marvel. If you could find a way to harness it you could have infinite amounts of chakra. I gathered some chakra into my hand but was dismayed when I sensed the surrounding chakra was pushed away even as I expelled chakra from my tenketsu.

I thought for a moment and instead withdrew my chakra, creating a vacuum for the chakra in the air to follow and tentatively it came. And then everything went wrong.

Suddenly the chakra was rushing into me, I felt my feet becoming heavy, incapable of moving, my head expanded, my eyes moving to the sides of my head. Webs grew between my fingers.

Strangely after it initially started happening I wasn't panicked, an odd sense of calm washed over me. This was alright… everything was going to be alright…

THWACK, THWACK, THWACK

3 blows rained down upon me in quick succession and I felt the chakra leaving me, something that I lamented until my mind cleared and I saw Jiraiya stood looking concerned and a small green toad with grey hair holding a stick that I now realised he had smacked me with.

"W… what was that?" I asked bewildered, instead of replying the elder toad turned to Jiraiya.

"You taught him about nature chakra, at his age Jiraiya-boy? And then you brought him here?" He gave Jiraiya two quick swipes with the stick, one at each question.

Jiraiya held up his hands trying to placate the toad, "I taught him nothing Pa I swear it."

Pa stared at Jiraiya for a few more moments before seemingly accepting what he had said as the truth, he deflated slightly "Well then, we'll discuss this later"

Jiraiya picked up the conversation from there, "Ko this is Pa, one of the two great sage toads, Pa this is Ko… my son."

Pa's eyes nearly bulged from his eyes, "Your son?! But he must be approaching adulthood and you're only…" suddenly he looked faint.

I smiled, "I'm younger than I look, I'm actually only five. I have a… unique chakra problem that causes me to grow quicker than usual."

Pa seemed to mouth 'five' whilst looking over me before shaking himself, "What are we doing, you're the new toad summoner, we must celebrate! Come Ma was just making dinner"

* * *

The food was definitely an acquired taste but nowhere near as bad as Jiraiya had made out on our way to their home, he had made some excuse to avoid getting a full serving of food himself and the few times I glanced over at him whilst we were eating he seemed to grow greener and greener much to my amusement. Over the course of the meal Pa explained to Ma that I was the new toad summoner and about the accident I had when I arrived. Ma seemed to take all this in her stride and more than anything else appeared extremely happy that I had even tasted her food never mind cleared my bowl.

"So," I began, "what is nature chakra?"

"It's the lifeblood of the world Ko-boy" Pa replied, "Just as humans require chakra to sustain themselves so does all of nature. Plants however have no chakra system so they expel excess chakra into the air to be shared amongst other plants and, after a certain amount of training, sages such as myself and to a certain extent, Jiraiya-boy"

I nodded in understanding, in hindsight it seemed an obvious idea that in this world if humans need chakra to survive other forms of life might, "But then what happened to me?" I asked

Pa gestured around, "Mount Myoboku has always been an area suffused in an extraordinary amount of nature chakra, when you arrived you must have somehow accidentally drawn some in. In such cases where nature chakra is absorbed in large amounts or without proper mixture with the users chakra the nature chakra will attempt to transform it's user into something befitting the landscape around it before turning you to stone." He paused to cough into a fist, "Toads have lived here for so long now that the natural chakra has attuned itself to our presence, as a result the thing an unwary user of nature chakra gets turned into is a stone toad more often than not. I'm afraid the process is quite irreversible if I had not come along when I had you would have been just another toad golem."

Suddenly I didn't feel so well, "I could sense the nature chakra so it wasn't really an accident - i was trying to draw it in… but youre saying all those other statues were…" I choked out.

Pa nodded, "Unsuccessful attempts at becoming a sage. Or just accidents. We leave them out of respect and as a warning."

"Do not depress the boy too much!" Ma exclaimed, "You'll discourage him and don't forget about the message from old man gamamura."

"Discourage? You can't mean-" but Pa was already nodding.

"Jiraiya has already trained to be a sage, though he has yet to make a perfect transformation, you too will be trained, in time. That you can sense the chakra so well only bodes well for your training Ko-boy but I wouldn't worry too much it will be some time before you are ready for such an undertaking and longer still before you attain such a feat. Anyway Ma is right. Old man Gamamaru knows you are here and has sent a message arranging a meeting with you, he has grown very restful of late it would be unwise to make him wait. We'll be leaving as soon as Jiraiya-boy eats his dinner."

Jiraiya looked like a man condemned.

* * *

"Who is Gamamaru?" I asked Jiraiya, we were approaching an area beneath one of the mountainous outcroppings, it seemed to give way to a cavern.

"He's the great toad sage, we don't know how old he is but I've hear Pa say over 1000 years old. He's very old at any rate. He might seem like ahhh…. Like he's missing a few marbles upstairs but don't let that fool you he's still very wise and deserves respect." Jiraiya explained as I nodded, "He sits in the hall of records where everything that happens in history is recorded but what's more important are his prophecies. Toads don't dream but Gamamaru does and his dreams foretell the future."

If Jiraiya hadn't told me so seriously I wouldn't have believed him and even so I still struggled. Where did that leave determinism or free will? I had little time to ponder for we entered a hall with a colossally sized toad sitting upon a throne with what appeared to be huge scrolls stacked behind him, he wore a hat with an orb on it and whilst he looked docile enough I could notice he was steadily muttering to himself.

Map and Pa leaped to two daises in front of the toad and announced us.

"We have brought the one you asked for." they proclaimed.

"Who he asked for? how could he know I-" I began but was quickly shushed by Jiraiya.

"Of course I know who you are, that is to say I know what you are, how could I not!" Gamamaru exclaimed

"Erm, great toad Sage, I apologise if I've caused you any grievance." I said, it seemed best to approach this diplomatically considering his riled up state.

Gamamaru deflated, "Of course it is not your fault child, fate has its own ideas and seems to have blinded me to them with your existence."

Pa turned to the great toad sage, "What do you mean?"

"I mean that two years ago I had another dream." He replied

"But you never told us!" Ma and Pa protested

"There was little to tell. The dream was the end of my dreams, my previous prophecies that were never wrong, that always came to pass can now no longer be trusted because of this boy, this changer." He said, it seemed to take a great deal out of him for he took a drink from a glass resting nearby.

"What did I do?" I asked

For a moment he said nothing as if gathering his thoughts, "Nothing, you existed" his eyes opened slightly and suddenly I felt like I was pierced by them, "You are as different as I expected you to be, it seems I was a little insulting to call you 'child'."

Suddenly Jiraiya stepped forward, "Toad sage, what does this mean for my prophecy, for the cause I have dedicated my life to?!"

Gamamaru again remained silent for a few moments, "It is unclear and becomes more unclear everyday. You may never find your student, you may have already found your student. All I dream now is white, a canvas with infinite possibilities. But I do have a warning. The edges of this canvas are threatened with a great darkness. I make it your responsibility changer to prevent this and Jiraiya I ask that you aid him."

Jiraiya looked crestfallen but then he steadied himself and set his face stern as if he had already digested the information and made up his mind. But how could I? I was supposed to stop a great darkness coming in the future. I'd be happy to try but I was 5 years old, surely the toad sage had the wrong guy.

"Toad sage, are you certain of this?" I asked

"I am certain of little these last few years now that my dreams have failed me, but of your part in this I have no doubt. You will return here before you are ten years of age to learn senjutsu." He proclaimed.

Map and Pa turned to him "Surely that is too early, he is still a boy despite how he looks." They protested.

Gamamaru though stared at me with eyes wider than ever and said "We must take all safeguards against this darkness that threatens to engulf us. And you see him falsely, he is older than he looks." He finished cryptically.

'What did he mean by that?' I thought 'He can't have been able to tell I lived another life no matter how wise he is could he?'

I had no opportunity to ask for Gamamaru laid his head back and promptly fell asleep.

* * *

Before leaving Mount Myoboku Jiraiya and Pa introduced me to two more toads, a large toad called Gamabunta and another smaller toad called Kosuke with the instruction that I was only to summon Gamabunta in the most dire of circumstances. I nodded silently throughout all this despite the bad impression it apparently made on gamabunta I just couldn't concentrate with my thoughts on what the great toad sage had said and when we finally returned to Konoha Jiraiya tapped me on the shoulder and told me not to worry about it though there was still that steel at the edge of his gaze. He then immediately headed back into Hokage tower shouting back that he had to make a report to the Hokage.

I went home and layed in my futon still shellshocked. How could I prevent a darkness from befalling the future? By the time I woke up the next day however I had decided there was little I could do about it either way and put it to the back of my mind, fretting over a future you had no information to prevent was worse than useless, all I could was prepare myself to meet it.

Of course now that I was awake it helped that I was distracted since I had been manacled to a wall in a cell.

"Kukukuku so you finally awake Keiko, I've had my eyes on you for some time." A voice rasped from the darkness inside the cave.

He stepped forward, the light from his torch illuminating a pale face I vaguely recognised from a picture of Jiraiya's genin team.

"Orochimaru!?"

* * *

AN: I don't have much to say with this one, I think it's progressing a little quickly so I may slow the pace a little going forward. But I hope you enjoyed it. See you in the next chapter.


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

* * *

"Shhh, you'll wake up your friend" Orochimaru said quietly.

I looked to my side and found Kakashi restrained just as I was, his head resting on one of his upstretched arms.

I looked back to Orochimaru, "What do you want with us?" I demanded.

"Me? Why Ko, I'm just under orders. Though I'm wounded that you would suspect me." He said

Under orders? From who? It didn't matter, I knew at least one way out of this, I started pulling on my manacles but though they audibly strained at the leverage placed on them they remained firm.

"Kukukuku impressive." Orochimaru whispered as he walked away from my cell.

I scowled at his condescension and started to channel some chakra to my arm to increase my strength when I realised I had no access to my chakra. I was trapped.

* * *

Some time later Kakashi awoke. He didn't panic at finding himself trapped in manacles but looked around and saw me.

"What's going on?" He asked.

"What's the last thing you remember?"

"I headed home after the mission, had some dinner and went to sleep." He replied

I nodded, "Same here, I don't know what's going on but the only person I've seen was -"

I got no further for a senbon flew out of the darkness hitting a pressure point and forcing me unconscious.

* * *

I woke up sometime later with a headache.

"Awake huh, Minato came to visit whilst you were out." Kakashi drawled

I did a double take, "Minato? But it's Orochimaru who's keeping us here"

He shook his head but didn't say anymore, he seemed to be arguing inwardly with himself. Eventually he said, "They're going to move us soon."

"Move us? Where?"

He shrugged.

"We can't just stay here we need to escape, do you have any way of escaping your manacles?"

"No and my chakra is cut off. And besides…" He seemed to be about to say something else but he merely trailed off.

Strange. Now that I looked at Kakashi i realised he has never looked so troubled. There was a fierce debate raging inside him and he wouldn't tell me what it was.

What had happened whilst I was knocked out?

* * *

Shinobi in white masks came to move us not long afterwards, I tried to escape but my minder seemed to be ready and had bound me in another set of manacles cutting off my chakra after a brief struggle.

Kakashi for his part didn't resist at all but looked on, still conflicted.

They split us up from there, I was placed in a small cell with a table and chair, Kakashi was lead elsewhere, the door was closed behind me as I was still examining the room.

Unfortunately the room presented no means for escape. Four blank walls with the only feature being the sturdy door. The ceiling appeared to be smooth stone giving me the impression I was underground. The table qnd chair were made of steel and sturdily bolted to the ground offering no chance of an improvised weapon. I learnt against a wall and waited.

* * *

I don't know how long has passed. It felt like days but it could have been less than 24 hours. I had sank so that I was sat leaning against the wall now, I think I may have slept earlier but with no change in the room it was hard to tell. It couldn't have been days though, whilst I felt hungry they couldn't have just left me to starve. Traditionally you take someone captive because you want something from them, I'd be less than useless dead.

I'd meditate to pass the time but the chakra blocking seals on my manacles caused a constant agitation in my chakra that prevented me from finding any kind of mental peace. I had tried to inspect the seal on my manacles but I could not see them whether I was attempting to channel chakra or not which offered little clue as the how they operated and whether there was any loophole that would allow me to escape them. I tried dashing them against the walls a few times but all I accomplished was bruising my wrists.

* * *

Thirst was beginning to become a larger pain to me than hunger. I had been forced to use one corner of the room as a bathroom, I had banged and shouted against the door but had received no response. With no way to measure time I had begun scratching a tally against the wall every time I fell asleep, this count though still could not be accurate due to the difficulty of telling when I dozed off. The count was currently at 3. I hoped i wasn't left too much longer, the smell was beginning to become unbearable.

At this point I had come to two conclusions either this was part of the torture or they had truly left me to die. I took small relief in ruling out the latter, if my captor wanted me dead they would have done it quickly, I was not yet old enough to had engendered a grudge in someone so great that they would kill me in such a way.

It was torture then.

* * *

I came back to consciousness as my body was disturbed. The last tally I had marked made it five.

I was being dragged from the room, if I had the energy I would have been thankful my trousers were made of such coarse cheap material protecting me from much of the discomfort of being moved in such a way. Thinking however was almost beyond me.

I tried to croak a question to the white masked warden but it came out as a whisper and he either didn't hear it or payed no attention. I passed out again not long after.

I awoke in a chair, one of the white masked shinobi were prodding me to alertness, I looked up in tired frustration until I saw he was holding a ladle of water, proffering it to me. My pride almost didn't allow it but eventually I submitted to having the water fed into my mouth. I choked at the first mouthful, my dry throat unused to anything passing that wasn't air. My second attempt was more successful and my third, after that though the shinobi stepped away and the door opened.

A man in shinobi garb with a konoha headband entered, though he presented as being a konoha ninja I could not remember seeing him since I had come to the village. He was dressed ready for battle with his flack jacket on and a long sword on his back, he was however seemingly injured, bandages were wrapped around a great part of his face and his chin had an x shaped scar though this appeared to be an injury long since healed.

He approached the table and sat down staring at me, despite my present frailty I stared back, I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of thinking I was scared of him.

He finally looked down and placed a file on the table and opened it, finally coughing into a fist he spoke, "What were your intentions coming to this village?"

"Huh" I responded intelligently, I had assumed my captors were not Konoha ninja and seeing this man's headband had been the first evidence to the contrary though even now I did not truly believe this man was a Konoha ninja, more likely it was a ploy to keep me off balance.

"What," he began again, "were your intentions coming to this village?"

"I was under the impression I was in Konoha? I came here because I wanted to learn how to be a shinobi and well, at the time, there was little other - aaargggh!" I finished with an exclamation of pain, it seemed these manacles were designed for more than blocking your chakra, on some unseen signal they could also shock you.

"What were your intentions coming to this village?" He said again implacably.

"Am I not in Konoha?" I asked "What is all this about?"

Again I was shocked and again he repeated the question though in place of village he did specify it was Konoha. I didn't believe it. I knew the Hokage well enough to know he didn't snaction this kind of treatment except on those that deserved it. I decided to stay silent. A mistake.

The man across from me raised an eyebrow at my silence and again I was shocked, the worst one yet and it lasted almost ten seconds, when it finished I let my head hang where I sat as smoke drifted up from my singed trousers.

"Do you think we are unaware of your true allegiances? The Hokage himself gave me permission to perform this… interrogation when the evidence was presented to him. So tell us, why are you here?"

I looked up, I would have spat at him were it not a waste of the little sustenance I had. I knew a lie when I heard it and I didn't care what he said, the Hokage would not betray me like this. After last time he would at least know well enough to see me himself to clear up any misunderstandings.

My mysterious interrogator must have seen the steel in my eyes for his eyes hardened too.

"What were your intentions coming to this village?"

And so it continued until I could not. Seeing my state my interrogator left and I, too weary to even move slept where I sat.

* * *

All too quickly I was woken up again, I looked to the masked shinobi prodding me expecting, perhaps hoping for, more water but he just stepped away. I looked back in front of me and saw the Hokage.

"How gullible you must think me." he said darkly.

"Hokage I -"

"I won't hear anything more from you Ko. I've seen the evidence." His eyes were cold, gone was his kindly façade, "This is the end of the road for the life you lived. I came here merely as a formality. To let you know that all that lies ahead of you is torture and then execution, your record will be wiped from our files, no one will know you ever lived."

Every word he said was like another turn on a vice, squeezing me, I felt trapped but at the same time I felt that there was something off about the Hokage.

"If you can tell us what your true purpose in my village was I can make it easy, I can just have you executed. An easy death. Simpler." His eyes softened a little "Please Ko. I do not want to torture you regardless of what your intentions were."

I shook my head, something was off but the Hokage seemed to take it as a refusal and he stood up. "Well Ko, this is the last time we will see each other." He turned to leave.

"Wait," I said and he paused, "what did you say to me when I was in the hospital?"

"I do not need to answer your questions." The Hokage dismissed and left the room.

I privately celebrated though. This was not the Hokage. Regardless of whether he answered my question or not twice during our conversation he had said my name and both times he had used 'Ko'. This could not be the Hokage - he said he would call me Keiko. Why would he call me by a nickname now?

It did not help too much though. I was back to square one. Looking for a way to escape.

The masked shinobi approached me now with a ladle of water which I graciously accepted, this time I got 5 ladles before he stepped away again. The door opened again but this time it was the same interrogator from before. I grimaced.

He took a similar position to before, opening my file on the table, perusing it for a few moments before he finally looked up at me.

"I assume you understand your position." He said. It wasn't a question. I just stared back at him and eventually he shrugged. "Well no point drawing things out. Are you prepared to divulge what your intentions were coming to this village?"

"The answer might be shocking." I joked

His eyes narrowed moments before electricity coursed through me again. This session was as drawn out and exhausting as the second and by the end my screams had become gurgles, at some point I had torn my vocal cords causing blood to run thick in the back of my throat.

After some indeterminable amount of time the man eventually got up and held me by my hair, I had become too tired already to raise my head. He hissed into my ear, "This is just the beginning boy, we have not yet even begun to truly test you. Tell me what you can and perhaps I will let you avoid harsher measures."

I had no energy to speak but I tried my best to laugh. He seemed to understand the intent of my rasps for he let go of my head in disgust.

"Transport him." He said shortly to the masked shinobi before leaving the room

* * *

I awoke being dragged again, my view of my legs dragging behind me revealed that the edges of my trousers were now burnt charcoal black. I tried to keep my eyes open for possible escape whilst I was being moved but there was nothing but featureless smooth stone. It seemed like this facility was a catacomb of underground tunnels. Not promising, even if I could slip by my captors finding a way out could easily be a harder feat.

Eventually I fell asleep again, still being dragged.

* * *

I resurfaced laying on a steel table, my limbs strapped to it. My small field of view from the table did not give rise to any optimism. The walls were adorned with metallic instruments, glittering in the light. At first glance you could mistake these for surgical tools but closer inspection revealed their more malevolent nature.

Looking to my left the ever present white masked shinobi stood, he stepped forward with water but this time as he helped funnel water into my mouth he whispered to me, "I can help you escape" I did a double take, almost choking on my water, at my quizzical look he repeated in hushed tones, "You don't need to do this, betray the village come with me."

I did not believe I would be truly betraying the village, if this place was part of Konoha it was operating beyond the Hokage's knowledge. His offer was tempting. But I couldn't leave Kakashi Here. I couldn't leave the village - if it came to that - and leave behind the life and friends I had made. I slowly shook my head and suddenly he was stepping back again as the door opened.

The man with the scar on his chin entered looking grim but resigned, he examined the tools for a time before taking one done, inspecting it.

"The difficulty with torture is causing commensurate pain without causing long lasting debilitating injury or disability," he began dispassionately, "When you have caused more damage than the subject believes themself to be capable of recovering from, their resolve hardens, crystallises. In their eyes their life is already over so what worth is giving up the information." He looked to me, "This tool is designed to slowly but quite safely and effectively remove the smaller bones in the hands and feet. Did you know you have nerves in your bones?" I stayed silent, "No? Well you'll find out. You can live without these bones so don't despair too much. Perhaps not the one to start with however," He turned back to the wall.

There was a dull thud, that echoed through the room, dust shook from the ceiling and I nearly sneezed. The man with the scar scowled and briskly left the room.

Suddenly the white masked shinobi was back at the table lifting his mask somewhat to show somewhat pasty skin beneath, "Hurry, come with me, betraying the village is better than execution isn't it? More than worth the price of being marked a missing nin."

There was no worse thing he could have said to convince me. At his mention of missing nin my mind thought back to the missing nin who had almost killed me. "I would rather die." I managed to choke out through my atrophying throat.

I saw a yellow eye widen in surprise before he was back against the wall and the torturer returned still scowling, he looked to the white masked shinobi and said, "It seems we may need to delay this until -"

He was cut off by the door which flew off its hinges and almost struck him, only his agility saved him. At the door, white hair billowing around him was Jiraiya with Ma and Pa on either shoulder, behind him I could see Sakumo and with him Kakashi.

"Danzo," He spät at the bandaged man, "You're lucky I don't kill you here you stand," danzo looked surprisingly unruffled by the threat, Jiraiya turned to me again and for the first time seemed to see my condition for his eyes widened in shock, "we're getting you out of here kiddo." he said, striding over and with apparent ease breaking the metal holding my limbs in place. He placed me on his back where I made the best effort I could to hold on, "The Hokage will be hearing of what you have done here Danzo, I don't care what leeway he has given you in the past it ends here." he said as he left the room.

Pa toad turned to look at me from jiraiya's shoulder, "We may need to stop Jiraiya-boy, Ko looks like he needs medical treatment now."

I opened my mouth to protest but nothing came out, Jiraiya laid me down before I could do anything else and Kakashi stepped forward running green glowing hands over me, his expression darkened as it did, "I can't heal this, he's been starved. Starved for so long he may react badly to food, cells in some parts of his body are dying from lack of energy, I can only suggest he saves his strength until we get to Tsunade."

Jiraiya seemed to deliberate for a moment before saying, "Can you put him to sleep"

Kakashi nodded and I tried to say something to protest but nothing came out and then it went black.

* * *

Sarutobi Hiruzen sat back in his chair, he had completed a large amount of his paperwork for that day, truth be told he might have been throwing himself into it to distract from the meeting he had arranged that was now imminent, it had been a few days since Jiraiya had returned with a malnourished Keiko and a confused Kakashi. He thought back to the Danzo he had known back when they were just Genin under Tobirama Sensei and shook his head, his friend from back then seemed almost incompatible with the person he had become. How had a person who harboured the same love for the village he did stray so far from the tenets the previous Hokage set down. Just remembering the state that Keiko was in when he saw him in the hospital invited a white hot anger to descend upon him.

A polite knock on the door let him know his time to reflect was over, he placed his pipe in his drawer and drew himself up in his chair. He would need the pipe later but right now he needed to be the Hokage.

"Enter" He commanded.

The door swung open and Danzo entered, not wearing chains - Hiruzen still trusted him enough for that - but then the most powerful thing that bound Danzo at any time was his ties to the village. He would not betray it. Hiruzen did not doubt he still strived to improve the village but his methods whilst overlookable during wartime were not acceptable in peace and his actions in the last few weeks would not have been acceptable even in war. Not to trusted Konoha shinobi.

"Danzo," Hiruzen acknowledged, "I expect you know why you are here?"

Danzo didn't scowl but Hiruzen knew him well enough to see his face twitch in a way that implied he wanted to, "Have my actions towards the betterment of this village not been acceptable."

The room's temperature fell a few degrees and as Hiruzen activated the privacy seals Danzo had an idea in the back of his mind that he had perhaps gone too far. He was not worried though, Hiruzen was easy enough to talk around, he had known him for so long. There was no doubt he was a good leader but behind the cutting edge of his leadership the iron was soft, malleable.

Hiruzen might as well have shouted so cutting were his words, "How does the act of bettering our village leave one of our most promising shinobi in the hospital? Tsnuade says he could be permanently handicapped from the events that occurred under your eye with your Root. How does the act of bettering our village leave another doubting the friendship he has had with another child for over a year? Can you explain this to my satisfaction Danzo?"

Danzo glanced away very briefly, Hiruzen was serious. He would need to be careful. The truth was the best policy here, or at least as much of the truth as Hiruzen could stand.

"You planned to send them to the chunin exams in Kumo." He stated, Hiruzen nodded confirming the fact but not seeing how this related to his actions, "It was too soon, these are promising assets Hiruzen, we -"

"Hokage. You will address me as Hokage in this room." Hiruzen interrupted.

Danzo nodded his head, "These are promising assets Hokage and as of recently they have classified information regarding one of this village's strongest weapons."

The Hokage's eyes narrowed, "So you tortured one and turned the other against his teammate?"

"It was not truly torture, you know what T&I are capable of, it would not be fair to equate the small hardship I pressed upon the boy to torture and besides his discomfort was a means to an end."

"Which was?"

"He is relatively new to this village, I've seen his records before you attempted to expunge the suspicion of his being a spy. I still do not think the evidence he presented was enough. I sought to see whether he could be trusted not to give away the information he had been given and to see if he was easily swayed away from the village. I had an operative offer him a way out, to abandon Konoha."

Danzo knew immediately he had said too much, he could see it in the rage behind the Hokage's eyes, flames of anger were consuming him. He decided to move on to the other ninja.

"As for the other he is five, young even by shinobi standards and unused to working with a team, he would have been targeted during the exams and easily turned against his teammates, even more easily against the new member you matched them up with. It took less than 24 hours to cause suspicion against his team mate requiring only a henge of his sensei telling him that Keiko had been captured for crimes against the village."

Hiruzen sat staring at Danzo and eventually pulled a document from his drawer.

"As I understand it your place on the council was afforded to you by the Shimura clan, none of whom are now shinobi with the exception of you. It is a little late to do it now but since you do not represent the interests of any number of shinobi you are stripped of your seat on the council." Hiruzen began, stamping the document.

Danzo flinched and was about to protest but Hiruzen held up a hand as he pulled another document from his drawer.

"This is a medical report regarding your health from Tsunade herself, it seems your injury during the last war has lasted much longer than expected and the issue with your eye has affected your depth perception, the recommendation is that you are placed on long term leave." Hiruzen stamped the form. "As of now you are to take no missions and undertake no shinobi business, you are still afforded the role of diplomat for the leaf village but you are not to leave the village until further notice. Due to your injuries of course."

Danzo was scowling now, "Really Hiruzen this is going too far." He protested.

"I have told you to call me Hokage in this room, another infraction and I will have you incarcerated." He pulled another document from his drawer, "This is the wartime act that made permissible the creation of your Root, I can see here that it was never marked as void when the war ended."

"Hokage you know we need that force, you are too soft to-"

"Soft?" Hiruzen seethed, "You think I am soft? Perhaps I have been. But no more." He picked up another stamp and marked the paper. "As of today Root is disbanded, it's members are to be reintroduced back to society via the anbu organisation so that they can acclimatise to living among civilians again."

"You cannot-" Danzo caught himself at a look from the Hokage, "You must not do this, you need someone such as I to keep watch in the shadows, to support the tree that is Konoha."

The Hokage sat considering, "Perhaps I did, perhaps I still do. But you are not that person anymore Danzo. Keep in mind that to disobey any of these orders is to commit treason. Anbu please escort Shimura back to his home, according to these medical recommendations he should be spending evening and nights at home."

An anbu appeared and placed its hand on Danzo's shoulder when Danzo didn't immediately move but remained staring at the Hokage. At length Danzo shrugged away from the hand, turned and left, an uncharacteristic snarl on his face.

"I trust you to keep an eye on him Saku." Hiruzen muttered lowly for the ears of the anbu who nodded before following Danzo out.

Hiruzen retrieved his pipe from his desk, tapped it against his desk, filled it with tobacco and lit it, finally sighing out the smoke as he turned to look at his village. He smiled despite the meeting, he felt that he had a weight taken from his shoulders.

* * *

I was beginning to tire of waking up in hospitals, this time though I did not appear to be bandaged from head to toe, instead it seemed I had a drip connected to my arm. I glanced to my left and saw Kakashi was sat there looking strangely guilty, he was so distracted it wasn't until I moved that he realised I was awake.

"Ko!" He exclaimed, "Don't try to move too much, Tsunade says you'll still be feeling a little weak," at my frown he explained, "You've been asleep for almost five days now, according to Dad we were missing for a full week and it wasn't until Jiraiya heard that you were missing that they found us, apparently Jiraiya has an ability to sense all chakra signatures in the village when he has his summons."

I opened my mouth to say "Slow down" it was the fastest I had ever heard Kakashi speak but when I spoke it came out as a whisper, Kakashi grimaced.

"Tsunade mentioned you might have trouble talking, she wasn't sure if she was able to fix your vocal chords, it looks like they had been put through some punishment. Jiraiya and my Dad are here too they just went to get lunch."

"What happened?" I whispered again.

"We're not sure yet, it's been kept pretty quiet but my Dad said the person behind it - I think Jiraiya said his name was Danzo when we got you - was going to be in a lot of trouble with the Hokage."

I nodded, I was mostly relieved. I hoped I was going to be able to speak to the Hokage to get the full story but I doubted I'd get the whole of it.

Kakashi seemed to notice me looking pensive and nudged me "Hey, when you get out of here how would you like it if I came around early morning when you usually train alone and we do some more team training?"

I looked at Kakashi, his eyes looked so hopeful I couldn't say no but what had brought this on? I nodded and Kakashi smiled.

"I'll go get Tsunade, she'll be able to tell you how long you're going to be in here for - and I'll let Dad and Jiraiya know you're awake." He said, getting up and leaving the room.

* * *

AN: These chapters get harder and harder. The plot took a twist you probably weren't expecting haha but it's a few years too early for Orochimaru's experiments to be discovered I think. On the upside though, Root has been disbanded, the Hokage has become a stronger, firmer leader and Danzo, at least for now, has been taken out of the picture which might have some significant effects for the future. Poor Kakashi, he probably feels awful for not trusting Keiko now, maybe he'll realise how important teams are. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'll see you in the next one.


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I do not won Naruto

* * *

When Tsunade came back she first explained that whilst I was horribly malnourished I wasn't really injured in any way and the only lasting damage would be to my vocal chords which she explained were too delicate to heal. She expected I would only be in the hospital for another week or so now that I had woken up. A week seemed excessive but I wasn't going to argue with Tsunade. She seemed remarkably calm considering how angry she had looked the last time I had wound up in her care.

She also asked about how I was feeling myself. I knew it was no idle question from her intent eyes. She was concerned for my mental health. Were I only a child as I appeared to be I did not doubt I would have serious issues by now, from what I had seen though this world did not really have a mental healthcare system outside of some of the Yamanaka offering their services with veterans who sought out their help. I was not a child though and whilst my experience was far from a walk in the park I felt I could deal with the trauma myself through meditation. I explained in a whisper to Tsunade that I did not feel I needed counselling at this moment in time and she seemed surprised I had so easily seen through her, muttering "damn brat." to herself as she pulled something from a pocket and handed it to me.

To assist with my speaking for now she had handed me a slate and a piece of chalk, she explained for now it would be necessary but she had already made plans for me to be tutored in sign language when I was discharged. "The damage might not be permanent," she placated, "But most shinobi learn sign language by the time they move on to be Chunin anyway."

When Jiraiya arrived I saw why Tsunade seemed so calm despite my reappearance in her hospital, I doubt she actually blamed him but it seemed she had let some steam out on him anyway, luckily he only had a few bruises which didn't affect his grin at seeing me awake. Minato was close behind, they explained that Kushina had been visiting everyday whenever she could but she had been tasked recently with finding a way to nullify a particularly complicated seal that prevented subjects from discussing certain topics, apparently it was a direct assignment from the Hokage.

Speaking of the Hokage I asked if anybody has heard any news regarding the culprits behind my capture.

Jiraiya grinned viciously, "You won't need to worry about him kid, he's lost all the power he's ever had and more. I never did trust that old warhawk. Truth be told he should be facing execution but the council would rebel against a respected shinobi like him facing that harsh a repercussion, he was taught by Tobirama himself after all. He's never going to be a problem again though," his smile widened, "I even hear he's been put on a curfew."

I nodded appreciatively. I knew the Hokage was the leader of the village but there were always restrictions on absolute power, if Jiraiya was satisfied with his punishment so was I.

Our conversation continued into the evening with the speech from them punctuated by the quick scratching of chalk on slate from me. Eventually though Tsunade kicked everyone out and I tried to get some sleep for the night.

Sleep however was hard to attain and fleeting, filled with specters unfamiliar, they fell upon me as I tossed and turned through the night. When morning's first light struck the upper walls of my room I gave up. Meditation, I decided, was definitely needed. It had been a long time since I had to fight enemies from within. I spent the rest of the early morning laid down meditating in a faux sleep.

I came to awareness later to a fully realised morning sun shining through my window, I would still no doubt struggle with sleep for some time but I was happy with the progress I had made.

* * *

Waking up the next morning Tsunade pronounced me well enough to leave my bed but not to leave the hospital, she did however tell me that classes for sign language were currently being held in a spare ward in the hospital and that if I felt up to it I could avail myself of their tutoring later that morning. I gladly took up the offer not wanting to wander around the hospital aimlessly.

Not long after Tsunade left me Kushina came barreling into my room.

"Kei! Are you OK? I heard from Minato you woke up."

I smiled, tired as I might be seeing Kushina alone was enough to up my energy levels. I picked up my slate and told her that I was doing well and that I was happy to see her.

Kushina grimaced seeing the slate and chalk but apparently already knew about my condition, "I'm sorry I couldn't come yesterday the Hokage has me working on a top secret seal he wants to negate."

I nodded as she explained, I would have liked to know the details of the seal but with it being top secret it was understandable that she wouldn't be able to divulge many details. It's not like I would have been able to help anyway, I knew the basics of counteracting seals but it was something you learned better through experience than through scrolls, trying to find the weaknesses in a seal presented to you was quite different to creating one yourself.

Eventually Kushina had to leave again but it was well timed since the time at which the sign language lessons were being held was approaching.

* * *

Sign language… was not an easy thing for me to learn. Languages had been one of my few academic weak points in my old life and that seemed to be one of the traits I took to this new one. They began with the signs that would be most essential to a shinobi, hand signals to indicate danger, to indicate how many enemies there were or to communicate a hazard.

I left the first lesson with very little to show for it but resolved to make sure I at least learn the basics by week's end. I did not want to continue writing on a slate if I could help it. I went back to my hospital bed and spent the time meditating,

In my meditative state I encountered the same phantoms that assailed me in my sleep but here I could approach them rationally, find their origins and eventually come to understand them. Understanding a thing is the first step to control and it is a hard thing to fear that which you control.

* * *

I received disparate visits the rest of the week. Kushina was busy, Jiraiya was preparing for a mission he told me was related to kidnappings taking place within the village, I had heard some whisperings of it happening but it must be serious if Jiraiya was investigating, at my frown though he reassured me that the activity had died down of late. He also told me that the Hokage did hope to make a visit at some point but the council were keeping him extremely preoccupied, they were not happy with Danzo's forced retirement and curfew despite him actually getting off so lightly for what he did. Jiraiya's tone when he spoke of the council left no misunderstanding as to how he felt about that.

Minato arrived later in the week and we spoke mainly about training, apparently Kakashi had been focusing on enhancing his chakra reserves, it was the main area where he fell behind me so when I had recovered he was going to teach us both about some deeper elements of chakra theory as well as really up our training working together. When he spoke about the intensified training he seemed to have something in mind, some end goal but when asked he wouldn't elaborate.

It was on my last day hospitalised when the Hokage finally came for a visit with an entourage of only one anbu who stood guard outside, he looked more tired than I think I had seen him since the war.

* * *

"Keiko…" the Hokage sighed and took out his pipe, "I've read the reports of what you were subjected to. I won't insult you with an apology sincere as it might be." He finished filling his pipe and asked me with a gesture for permission to smoke, I nodded my head but scratched a message on my slate as he lit his pipe.

"You'd better not let Tsunade catch you." It read, I smiled teasingly as I turned it to him

The Hokage guffawed halfway into his first inhale and choked on the smoke, it took him a moment to recover but as he did he nodded, "Yes you're quite right. I think I might be safe for this short time though perhaps." Abruptly he sobered, "Coming back to your ordeal Keiko I imagine your friends have given you some news as to the fate of my ex-advisor Danzo?"

I nodded.

"I thought as much. You probably think he got off lightly?" He asked.

I didn't reply but he must have seen my disappointment.

"Do not misunderstand Keiko, for Danzo I have no doubt that, to some degree, he would prefer to be dead than have been rendered completely powerless in the village he worked so hard to protect. To have his movements restricted only exacerbates the blow. There is another element I would have you know however..." He nodded to the root outside who placed a seal on the doorway which I quickly discerned to be a simple privacy seal.

The Hokage came and sat down in the chair beside my bed and seemed for a moment to look into space, looking for a place to begin before finally he regained his focus, "What I say cannot leave this room Keiko." It wasn't a question and he didn't look to me for agreement, "I cannot describe to you the horrors of war, as a shinobi you will be no doubt be expected to experience them at some point. Even in war though there are things we do not do. Unspeakable things. In the last war there was a faction of Konoha that took missions to carry out these acts to help close the war more expediently, they were a special division placed under the command of Danzo. You could consider them a second more secretive Anbu." The Hokage shook his head, "If we were not at war I would have never approved that faction. After the war though Danzo never disbanded the group, instead he continued to take new recruits, creating his own training regimens with… questionable ethics. When I first received reports about these activities I should have shut down the division then and there, Danzo and my advisers convinced me otherwise - though of course that is no excuse." He shifted in his chair to turn to me, "This force is one of the things I stripped from Danzo, the operatives under his command are to be reintegrated into the standard shinobi roster. It was the thing Danzo valued most and without it he has little to no power in the village." At my frown he chuckled, "You must be wondering why I am telling you all of this. I wanted to explain thoroughly just how much Danzo has been punished for his actions - you of all people deserve to know."

I nodded but then something took my attention and I began to write on my slate. The Hokage took the moment to continue.

"Of course now that you know all of this you might be able to assist Kushina with the task I gave her, the seal she is trying to nullify has been placed on all of Danzo's shinobi, the seal -"

He cut off as I turned my slate to him, "Did you station other anbu outside the window? One just below window level?"

The Hokage frowned and shook his head, he placed his pipe upon my nightstand and walked over to the window. As he did spoke about other smaller things, I did not pay attention to what he was saying since he had a finger up indicating silence which in combination to his expression of concentration did not match up to the light hearted conversation he was keeping.

At once I realised, the silencing seal he placed at the doorway would not prevent people from overhearing outside, considering we were 4 floors up it would not normally have been a problem and if it wasn't an Anbu the hokage placed outside there really were very few reasons for someone to be hanging outside my window.

When the hokage reached the window he placed one of his hands on the wall below it and raised his eyebrows in askance to me, I shook my head and nodded towards where the chakra I sensed was coming from. The Hokage took a step across and placed his hand on the wall, this time I gave him a nod.

The Hokage withdrew his hand from the wall and then in a move that he made to look childishly easy thrust his open hand like a blade through the wall and before the debris from his thrust had landed his arm tensed and he withdrew his arm. When he did though the small hole he had made with his hand exploded as a leg and then an entire body followed his arm back through the wall.

I leapt up in case the Hokage needed any help but with him crouched over the insurgent I was sure he would be able to subdue the eavesdropper. What followed was a flurry of movement as the one I could now seen was a young adult male realised with horror his position, he moved to begin a string of jutsu hand signs, the hokage though was too quick positioning his spare hand between his two hands before he could even initiate the first hand sign and by the time the man had reacted by trying to move his hand away the Hokage had twisted the fingers of one of his hands together with his, I saw his face for the first moment shift from being strangely blank to a look of utter dismay as the Hokage maneuvered his hand locked with his to place him on his front with his hand locked behind him.

"Keiko," The Hokage said, remarkably calm for the situation, "Could you alert the anbu outside to this assassin."

I nodded though he wouldn't be able to see from his position and moved to the door, deactivating the seal before tapping the anbu at the door on the shoulder, he looked at me in a manner that implied a raised eyebrow though I couldn't know with his mask. I pointed inside the room and the anbu leaped into action as soon as he saw the debris.

"Take him to the same place we are holding the rest." The hokage instructed as the Anbu placed a seal on the man on the floor, I didn't see the seal but his body stiffened and then stayed still even as his chakra calmed and became subdued so I surmised it was a restraining seal.

"I'm sorry about this Keiko, remarkable chakra sense by the way, I can barely feel his signature with him in the room." The Hokage said to me as the Anbu walked to the door, "We are still having incidents with these agents from Danzo's units that have not quite gotten the message as of yet. I better go, I did not mean to put you in danger." At the door he paused, looking down at some of the debris at his feet and then at the hole in the wall. He paled a little. "When Tsunade comes by I don't suppose you could keep my involvement in this incident between me and you?"

I grimaced in commiseration.

The Hokage sighed, "Well I don't suppose I can't blame you."

* * *

Tsunade came a few hours later, the Hokage had visited fairly early in the morning so when she arrived it was still only around 10 o'clock.

She bustled into my room looking at a clipboard she was holding in front of her "Alright young troublemaker, it looks like..." She trailed off as she became aware of the small stones grating beneath her feet. She too a look around the room, her facing staying remarkably calm considering there was now a substantial hole in one of the walls and there were stones of various sizes distributed across the floor. Finally she looked back to me and fixed me with a glare which disabused me of any notion that she was taking this well in any way.

"Kei, I don't suppose you could tell me why there is a hole in my hospital?" Her voice was sweet enough to sound like it had been dipped in honey but they promised no less pain for their sweetness.

I turned my slate around, one word adorning the surface that I had written on it much earlier anticipating this conversation. I did not want to get on Tsunade's bad side. Sorry Hokage.

"The Hokage, eh? Well I can speak to him later, for now I came to tell you that I've decided you are well enough to leave, you can go back to training immediately, my only stipulation is that you should try not to speak, your throat cords are damaged but they might still be recoverable if a new treatment is devised. No promises though."

I nodded and signed a thank you to her, it was one of the simpler elements of conversation that I had managed to learn in my time learning sign language at the hospital.

Tsunade smiled and nodded dismissing me, I walked to the door to leave but was stopped at the door by a question by Tsunade, "Hey brat. Would the same person responsible for the wall be responsible for the lingering smell of tobacco?" She asked far too sweetly.

I fled, I felt bad enough for the Hokage as it was.

* * *

I stopped by Minato's house to let him know I had finally been discharged and would be able to come to practice the next day, he thanked me for the news before letting me know he'd tell Kakashi and disappearing in a flash of yellow light. I shook my head, seemed kind of wasteful to use a technique like that to cut out a small walk but I suppose it was efficient.

When I arrived home I found Kushina in my living room under a mountain of paper and scrolls.

"Ah! Sorry Kei, I didn't know you'd be coming back, I've been using your living room to try and work out this seal the Hokage gave me, I'll have this cleaned up in a few minutes." She exclaimed

I shook my head and wrote on my slate that it was not a problem - I seemed to barely use my living room anyway.

"Still..." She bit her lip, "Are you sure."

I nodded smiling but added on my slate "I would appreciate it if I could make it to my bedroom this evening though."

She grew a shade of red darker in embarrassment and promised me it would be clear by this evening.

I made my way from there to the small training area behind the house and spent the rest of the day getting back into shape and practicing the katas and techniques I hadn't been able to for the last few weeks.

By the time I returned, tired to my bones, the sky had turned shades of dark vermillion with the setting sun and Kushina had already gone. I cleaned myself up and then crawled into bed to sleep. The meditation I had done over the last week in combination with my overall exhaustion allowed me my first night of disturbance free sleep since I woke up in the hospital.

* * *

AN: Been a while and it's pretty short but I have a literal trifecta of excuses. Work picked up in a big way, then I went on holiday and then when I was back for barely even a day I fell down a flight of stone stairs breaking my leg. Probably what I get for trying to take a holiday. Chapters will be a little slower than the previous rate for a while whilst I get back on my feet (literally haha) and get caught up with work. I'd like to thank people for reviewing again, I don't have time to respond to all of them at the moment but if you have any questions about the story you could always PM me. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you in the next one.


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

* * *

I awoke with the first hint of the days sun to a knock at my door. Bleary eyed I made my way from my futon to the door, opening it a crack to see Kakashi, wide eyed and ready to start the day.

"Hey Ko," Kakashi greeted before taking in my unkempt state, "Sorry did I wake you?"

I shook my head, I would have woken up soon anyway. Until I saw Kakashi on my doorstep I had completely forgotten about how we agreed to train together in the mornings, I held up a finger to Kakashi asking him to wait a moment and I closed the door and got dressed for the day. It never took too long to get dressed considering I was still only wearing a pair of trousers and no shoes. My growth might have slowed dramatically but it was still fast enough that buying new clothes was pointless.

On my way back out I grabbed my slate and chalk in case I needed it and we headed to the small training ground behind my house.

"What were you thinking of training Ko?" Kakashi asked.

I thought for a moment, usually I would practice my katas this early but with Kakashi here maybe we could get some more intensive training done, I wrote down what I thought on my slate and showed it to Kakashi.

"Warm up and then spar?" He read from my slate, "Sounds good. I'll warn you though I've been training non stop whilst you've been in the hospital so you might have your first loss today."

I grinned at the provocation, truth be told I was looking forward to a challenge after so long cooped up.

We spent around 15 minutes stretching and moving through our respective style's katas before taking a place opposite each other and initiating the seal of confrontation.

We stood across from each other tense for a few fleeting moments and then Kakashi just disappeared. It was only the barest wisp of air blowing across me that warned me he was moving in from my right and I threw up an arm to block the roundhouse kick he had thrown.

He plainly hadn't expected me to block the hit and the surprise showed in his face, he was rightly confident in his speed, I hadn't been able to follow him at all but I knew him too well to be taken down by such a straightforward attack. I grabbed his foot by the sole before he could disengage and with ease threw his small weight across the field, he landed perhaps 20 paces away in a crouch and his momentum made him skid another metre.

"I can see this might not be so easy." Kakashi said

I shrugged smiling playfully before retaking my stance, with his speed I couldn't afford to allow him to keep taking the initiative, eventually he was going to get creative and hit me with a strike I wasn't expecting, I took the moments he was still recovering from his crouch to close the distance between us as quickly as I could.

Kakashi definitely wasn't expecting it, in the spars we had so far I had always allowed him the first move and he had almost never seen me on the offensive, preferring instead to use the opponent's attacks against themselves. By the time I was within striking distance though he was ready.

His first move was the beginning of the end for him unfortunately, in his shock at me coming so quickly at him he tried to leap away to create some space to move, a foot pinning one of his prevented that though and instead he flailed onto his back on the floor where I followed to grapple him into submission, it was the ideal scenario for me considering I would not be able to keep up with his strikes for long in an open fight, moving to the ground also gave me a significant size advantage over him.

He fought valiantly for the next minute, his speed giving him the purchase needed to escape from many of my attempts to pin him down, eventually though I had him trapped and when I finally coiled around him in strong hold he submitted.

Unentwining myself from him we both stood up and, slightly out of breath, gave each other the closing seal of the spar. Kakashi looked a little frustrated at his loss, with more experience he might have won but he panicked too quickly when I did something he didn't expect. I found my slate nearby and began writing on it and showed it to Kakashi.

"Your speed is incredible" I wrote.

Kakashi took a look before snorting, "My speed didn't help much in the end did it?"

He seemed to be taking the loss badly, I decided for the rest of the morning we would discuss the spar rather than try again, I could see another loss would be frustrating for him.

By the time that we had to set off to see Minato Kakashi looked much happier, I had broken down the mistakes he had made and what he could do to improve, honestly he was going to be a monster in the future, he might have beaten me in the spar if he were more experienced and hadn't panicked, a part of me wondered if the chakra training Minato had given Kakashi involved agility exercises, his speed from the last time I had seen him fight had skyrocketed and he was already one of the fastest fighters I had ever seen to begin with.

* * *

Minato was already at our usual training round when we arrived.

"Good morning team, how are you both doing?" Minato greeted us.

"Good." Kakashi shrugged.

"Better now that I'm finally out of that hospital." I wrote.

Minato looked at my slate and seemed to remember something "Ah, Ko, could I take a look at that slate for a moment?"

I nodded and passed it to him and he proceeded to throw it casually over one shoulder and it disappeared into the distance, I looked at Minato confused.

"They were going to find a sign language instructor for you but since I can already speak sign language fluently I offered to take on the task of teaching you." Minato said grinning, as he spoke I realised that he was keeping up a real time translation of what he was saying with his hands in sign language. I didn't like where this was going.

"From now on you'll be communicating with your hands, Kakashi I know you've already been taught the basics of this by your father so you'll have a head start but you'll also need to learn if you want to understand and work together with Ko."

Kakashi's eyes widened and I felt my spirits fall, I had barely learned the simplest signs by the time I had left the hospital, learning to communicate solely with my hands was an extremely daunting task.

"Don't look so down team, learning by immersion is always the best way to learn a new language." As he spoke I kept my eyes resolutely on his hands but I could already tell this was going to take a while, Kakashi looked similarly despairing.

"Now to start with today I thought we'd catch up on how we're doing with the leaf exercise. You first Kakashi" he said offering a leaf to him.

Kakashi held the leaf and looked at it deep in concentration, for a few moments nothing happened but then, gradually, lines of crackling blue light began to trace their way through the leaf starting from his fingers, he held that for almost ten seconds then all at once the electricity shot to the outside of the leaf and it combusted instantly.

"Close, Kakashi. You should have that perfected within a week or so I think. Now you Ko."

I took the leaf from Minato, I was pretty excited - this exercise had turned into one of the few I could do to keep in practice within the hospital and I had a lot of free time. I held up the leaf and channeled my chakra, making the now familiar change to wind chakra as it left my fingers that were holding the leaf up.

For a moment the leaf did nothing then a portion of the leaf fell away from the whole, then another and shortly after that another, a small breeze dismantled the rest of the leaf. It had been difficult getting to this point but after I finally got my chakra sharp enough to make one cut and I still had time to use up I figured it couldn't hurt to try to make another cut and then another and so on. This resulted in my wind natured chakra not only becoming sharper but also giving me the control to focus on even a small movement of it.

Minato nodded and gave an appreciative whistle, "I didn't think you both would have come so far so quickly, especially you Keiko, the control required to make that many slices at once is something even I would struggle with. As for you Kakashi you just need to be a little more careful with your chakra, I've heard it helps with lighting to imagine it as a cold fire. Deliberate but just as dangerous."

Kakashi nodded, looking consideringly at the fragments of leaf left in his hand.

"Now for our training and I have some news for you. In 8 months the Chunin exams are going to be held in Suna, the next chunin exams are in 2 months time but it is too close to prepare you properly for it and since it is being held in Kumo - a country we were at war with until very recently - it is too dangerous to send any team that isn't desperate for a promotion." Minato paused, he could probably see how excited we were just at the thought of entering the exams regardless of them being over half a year away. "To enter the Suna exam though you're going to have to prove you can work as a team and the most important part of teamwork is communication which you can hardly do when you can't understand each other."

Ah. So there was the rub. To enter the exams both Kakashi and I were going to have to get fluent in sign language as a bare minimum and we'd have to do it with at least a few months to spare so that we had time to practice other elements of our teamwork.

Kakashi and I turned to each other and nodded simultaneously. We could do this.

Minato called our attention back to him "Now for today's training you'll be sparring against me. You have 10 minutes to figure out a plan but remember no whispering or trying to speak Ko. I'll know if you even try. Kakashi, you too."

I grimaced, this was going to be a long day.

* * *

We didn't beat Minato that day. In fact we barely got a plan together at all beyond a simple trap and even that was only due to Kakashi and I being familiar enough with each other that he was able to guess what I wanted to communicate and vice versa. We left for home that evening tired, dejected and frustrated.

The next day wasn't much better but Minato seemed to want us to get past this blocker before we moved onto anything else. As a result we began spending 5 days a week sparring with Minato with the other 2 days being used on missions.

Kakashi continued to show up to early morning training and learning sign language rapidly became a large staple part of our training during those times, considering the situation we did the only thing we could - attack the problem with a dogged determination.

I only tried whispering something to Kakashi once during our early morning training, I don't know how Minato found out but our training that day went on for over 12 hours, when Minato ran out of excercises for us he just had us exercise, by late evening we were doing laps of the village wall. Minato never said why but I could see the disappointment in his eyes as he observed while we ran. I didn't need to ask.

With no time to relax the days passed like hours, the weeks like days and then the months. Before we realised it 5 months had passed and at some point Kakashi and I were communicating with a fluency born from necessity, we had learned the base sign language but between the two of us we had learned a kind of shorthand that vastly cut down the time needed for communication.

With our newfound skills we had at least improved to the point where Minato had to pay attention when we sparred against him. We still never came close, with his Hiraishin he was faster than it was possible for any human to be, he did show some sportsmanship though, only using it when he was pushed to… for the most part.

My wind chakra began to take a larger and and larger part of our battles against our sensei as did Kakashi's lightning jutsu. Kakashi's attempts at least looked somewhat polished, he learned more than a few jutsu from his father but I didn't have a teacher outside of Minato with wind nature being so rare in Konoha and he wasn't giving us any time during our training to learn new jutsu so I did what I could. This resulted in many of my attempted jutsu being used without hand seals, I gained a sense for how my wind chakra would behave and learned to control it to some extent, it was a wild beast though and I used it sparingly.

Kakashi's chakra enhancement training had payed off, he still had nowhere near the amount of chakra I did but he was at least able to finish many of our training sessions without being on the verge of chakra exhaustion.

Jiraiya visited twice during these months and suggested both times that I should begin my training with the toads - the earlier the better he said. I had no time though and I knew at the very least it would take months if not years to complete the training the toads wanted me to participate in.

Tsunade found the time to visit me every now and then, she tried to act as though she was visiting merely to check on my health but I had the feeling she was still worried about me, particularly about my mental state.

Kushina remained cooped up much of the time focusing on seals but seemed to finally make a breakthrough 4 months into mine and Kakashi's training after which she regularly dropped into our training and mocked us for the most part though it was all in good humour. She often referred to me as "dumb" clearly in reference to my voice, or lack of it, but she seemed to find it funny considering my relative intelligence for my physical age.

So it was that Kakashi and I showed up for training 6 months in to find a Minato who was grinning in a way that we knew harboured some kind of news.

* * *

"Good morning team." Minato called.

I signed a greeting back, as did Kakashi.

"I think we've progressed far enough with teamwork for the moment." Minato paused after saying this, he pouted a little we when we didn't immediately celebrate. It was understandable though, we had been training almost none stop for 6 months, my body had built muscles in places I didn't know possible and Kakashi could literally disappear on command with his speed. We were happy with our accomplishments but we were weary beyond belief, far to tired to celebrate when we knew there was something he wasn't telling us.

"From here we're going to be spending some time training your soft battlefield skills, I've arranged a tutor for both of you who you will be reporting to for the next month after which we'll be doing a final month of multifaceted training in advance of the Suna exam." Minato continued.

This caught our interests. New teachers? And we'd be taught separately?

"Who?" I asked silently

"Well I suppose I should begin by explaining the particular skills you have been allocated and why I'm working you so hard before this exam." Minato began a little sheepishly, I had a bad feeling about this, "Usually teams enter the chunin exams in standard 3 man cells, you might have noticed that we're a man short."

'Were we getting a new team member?' I thought to myself, I had never really thought about how this team was different from every other Konoha team, I had just kind of accepted it as an odd circumstance brought about by the strange number in our academy class.

"I've spoken to organisers for the Suna chunin exams and they have told me there isn't a test this year that particularly necessitates a 3rd team member and since we don't have anyone on the roster available to take the space in your team I've arranged that an exception be made in your case so that you can enter as a two man team."

I almost put my head in my hands, no wonder he had been drilling us so hard.

"With that explained I'll move on to what you'll be looking at this month. First you Keiko," I looked up, I had let my mind wander ahead considering all the drawbacks our situation brought to us. "You will report to the Nara compound tomorrow, you have been marked for a long time in your academic work for having an outstanding mind for tactics and strategy, your teacher for the next month will be the newly inaugurated clan head Shikaku Nara." I nodded, I was vaguely familiar with the name, I had at least a passing knowledge of him. "As for you Kakashi, you're the team medic at the moment and with only one other member on your team it's all the more important that you survive at all costs therefore you'll be taking survival training, I've managed to get you a rare opportunity to learn from one of the village's best shinobi, Orochimaru will meet you tomorrow at The Forest of Death."

I frowned. Orochimaru? I had only seen him once and he seemed to be related to my kidnapping.

"Is something wrong Ko?" Minato asked

No, I shook my head, Minato had been henged to trick Kakashi back then, it's possible - likely even - that Orochimaru was also a henge after all why would Orochimaru have an eye on me?

Minato looked at me for a few more moments before seeming to accept my answer, "Good, well I know it's been a difficult time all around these last few months, you have today free."

This time Kakashi and I did celebrate.

* * *

We decided to use the day on separate projects, Kakashi chose to use the time to work with some of his dog summons. A good choice for preparing for survival training.

For me though it had been some time since I even had the opportunity to brush up on my fuinjutsu skills outside of applying what I already knew in the rare instances I had the opportunity to use them in spars.

When I checked my fuinjutsu library in my living room though I found a few new scrolls, it seemed Kushina was actively adding to the collection when she could. I took some of the new ones from the shelves I had access to and began reading through them.

They were all related to methods on breaking seals, it seems Kushina has devised a few new methods in the last months. Suddenly I remembered the task the hokage had given, I hadn't been asked for help so I assumed Kushina had been able to manage the problem fine but plainly she had found some new schools of thought during the process.

I spent the entire day reading through them, something about the seal Kushina worked on must have really gotten her pumped up, reading what she had written she was plainly very enthusiastic about the subject and honestly it was very engrossing.

The standard school of thought when negating or nullifying seals is to try and just seal the seal away. It gets circuitous very quickly and of course there were protections any competent seal user could apply to prevent such a eventuality. If sealing the seal away isn't possible then the simplest solution is to just contain the seal, the evil sealing method was one of the foremost examples of this but took time to prepare and exacted a heavy cost in terms of chakra.

The final option is to find a flaw in the seal you can use to unravel it or find a weakness that lets you get under it's skin so to speak, in this way you can forcefully pull the seal away from the object it was applied to onto another compatible object.

Kushina had filled these scrolls with flaws and weaknesses to particular schools of fuinjutsu from every village from Suna to Kumo, they included jinchuuriki seals and even some seals I had to assume were state secrets for those villages. It was a good thing these scrolls were naturally coded considering they written almost entirely in the convoluted language fuinjutsu took on when you reached more advanced subjects.

Eventually I had to resign myself to my futon or risk falling asleep at my living room table, regretfully I tidied away the scrolls and went to try and get some sleep. I still sometimes had nightmares from my time being tortured by Danzo. Thankfully the episodes were few and far between now. I spent my last moments of awake wondering what kind of teacher awaited me at the Nara compound. What had Minato signed me up for?

* * *

AN: Still a bit short for a chapter, seemed like a good place to leave it though. A lot of ground covered in this chapter, hopefully it doesn't feel too rushed. It's been a while since I read the rest of the fic back so I might use the next few days to go back and read it through to refresh my memory and maybe even make some small changes. Depends if I can find time. Again, thank you for the reviews they do help a lot. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you in the next one.


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

* * *

I realised I had made a very large miscalculation. I had departed from my house bright and early to make my way to the Nara compound and realised perhaps 30 seconds after leaving home that I didn't have a clue where I was going. I decided to head to Kakashi's house, if Sakumo was in he would probably know.

It was a remarkably sunny day in Konoha and despite it being early morning I found Sakumo doing drills in his well equipped training area, he saw me coming and relaxed his posture in front of the training dummy he was pummeling, grabbing a nearby towel and wiping the sweat from his brow.

"Ko," He greeted, "How goes it?"

"Pretty good," I silently replied, "I wanted to ask if you knew where the Nara Compound was."

Sakumo nodded "Of course I do, I'll lead you there - I needed to see their apothecary for supplies anyway."

I thanked him, despite his protests that it was no problem. Despite me now being able to talk with people again, albeit with the intermediary of my hands, conversation still seemed a little stilted and one sided. It felt strangely awkward to answer one man's voiced inquiry with a lengthy reply of silent hand gestures. It was something I hoped I'd get used to in time but as things stood there was no alternative.

I was surprised with the direction Sakumo took when we left his house, instead of heading further into the village where I expected a prodigious clan such as the Nara would stay he circled around the edge and began to get further and further away until, on many of the dusty roads we walked along, we were the only people in sight.

"What brings you to the Nara anyway Ko?" Sakumo asked

"Minato has found me a teacher for battlefield strategy with them." I replied

"Ah, so that's why Kakashi's doing survival training, Minato's selected something for the both of you that would suit you very well." Sakumo said nodding to himself.

"If you don't mind me asking, why do you think I would be suited for strategy?"

Sakumo snorted, "You can see it when you fight kid, you aren't thinking about the punch you're throwing or the kick you're blocking, you're thinking about the overall battle, when you move it isn't to gain an advantage - though there's no doubt that is part of it - instead you move to where you'll win, even against opponents where I'd say you had a disadvantage you never look to be in a weak position. It's one of your best traits."

I blinked, I hadn't considered it that way, surely everyone fought to win?

Sakumo seemed to hear my unspoken question, "Everyone fights to win, it's uncommon though for someone to actively place themselves to win, everyone always thinks about the next few moments never paying any heed to what lies beyond but I've seen you do things in a spar that never even registered as relevant to the battle until towards the end."

I shrugged non committedly, I think he gave me too much credit.

"Listen Ko, I wouldn't be saying it if I didn't mean it."

I looked up at Sakumo and he looked about as serious as I had ever seen him. I nodded slowly.

Before long the dusty roads we traveled became dry dirt paths and then eventually a single path wandering through trees.

"You'll find the main Nara house straight ahead," Sakumo said as we entered into a clearing dominated by traditional wooden buildings built on stilts with steps leading up to their porches. I looked around, it was certainly well hidden, I hadn't realised there was anything here until I stumbled upon it and it was the size of a small village. The main path through the compound led to what appeared to be the largest house.

I tapped Sakumo before he walked away and asked him how he knew where I needed to go when he turned around.

"No need for guessing games, if you've come for strategy training it'll be Shikaku Nara who'll be your teacher." He said before reiterating, "Main house straight ahead." and making his way in another direction.

Something about the village seemed oddly absorbing to me, as if it was pulling me in. Perhaps it was the peacefulness of it's situation, the Nara were certainly a careful people, building their houses as they did they made sure their buildings did the least damage possible to the land.

As I made my way past the houses I didn't really notice many people and those that I did were either doing chores such as sweeping their porch or dozing in the sun. By the time I finally reached the main house and knocked quietly on the door I had heard barely a sound from the people here, the deer I occasionally saw between houses made more noise as they ambled along on their hooves.

The door slid open whispering in its frame after a few moments to reveal a woman, "Ah Kei, it's been such a long time."

I looked at the woman before me for a moment in confusion before putting my hands together to ask "Who -" but I didn't get any further than that as she seemed to recognise my confusion.

"Oh we only met once, you might not remember, I was the one that completed your paperwork to make you a fuinjutsu practitioner."

I slammed the bottom of my fist into my open hand in sudden recognition, "Yoshino!" I signed

She chuckled, "That's me, but you're here for my husband I think, come on in he's just out back."

She gestured me in and I followed, looking around the house as I went. I had to rethink my idea of spartan, to me my house was pretty spartan, Yoshino's house blew mine out of the water though, there was almost no furniture and even the kitchen only had a single stove built from stone with a large pot sitting on top, they had a large wooden bucket in one corner filled with dishes soaking in water, the only real furniture in the kitchen was the low table in the middle of the room and a large cupboard in one corner.

Yoshino apparently noticed my eye looking over her home, "We like to live simply out here." She explained.

I nodded, I didn't dislike it.

She led me to another door which opened to reveal a back garden that stretched into a dense forest, a man was laid at the foot of one of the trees apparently dozing off.

The most prominent thing about him was the bandages sweeping across his forehead with a secondary one dropping below his right eye, he was dressed in a standard Jounin uniform over a mesh shirt, his hair was tied back into a spiky ponytail.

I looked to Yoshino a little uncertain, unsure whether to wake him up but she just rolled her eyes.

"Don't worry he's awake, he probably knew you were here before I did, he's one of the clans best sensors." She said, "Doesn't act like it though." she added pointedly.

Shikaku sighed and opened his eyes and I was instantly struck by how sharp they were, like they were cut from granite. I had the odd sensation I was being weighed. Abruptly he stretched to his feet and walked to the house.

"You must be Ko," he greeted

"His name is Kei!" Yoshino interrupted

Uh oh, this wasn't the first time I had seen this argument break out.

Shikaku just sighed, muttering something before turning to me, "How about we get started, come into the living room."

I followed him through to find him sat at a Shogi board, I took a seat opposite him.

"Minato tells me you've never played Shogi. But he also told me you're a fast learner so..." Shikaku trailed off.

Technically true, I had never played it during this lifetime. In my head though just looking down at this board was like an explosion of ideas in my mind complete with names for tactics and the ideas behind them. I suspected I played this game quite extensively in my old life.

Shikaku began rearranging the pieces on the board to a set up you might see toward the end game, the pieces were quite developed and each player only had 4/5 pieces left.

"The end goal of Shogi is quite simple," he yawned, "You need to capture the opponent's King. This," he said holding up one of the discarded pieces, "is a pawn, the cheapest unit in the game. This is the Lance..."

He went on to explain what each of the pieces were, what they did along with a simplified blurb of their strengths, he then moved on to showing the promoted pieces with a similar background on each, all the whilst I nodded along not knowing how to explain how I already knew how to play when there was no way I could.

When he finished he gestured down at the board.

"I've laid the board out in a way for you to begin to learn to play this game with simplified scenarios, Using what you have learned so far make the best move from this position. It's your move, you have 5 minutes."

I didn't need 5 minutes, I had spent much of the time he had used explaining the game to me deciding what move I would were many options from such a position that would on the surface play to my benefit, eventually though I had found one that seemed eminently elegant. It sacrificed one of my most powerful pieces, a promoted rook, for the taking of a pawn. On the surface a perplexing move to make, true it placed the opponent's king in danger of being taken the next move but my piece could be taken 3 different ways from the position I had placed it. The elegance of the move became clear later, despite seemingly sacrificing the rook in any scenario of the 3 it resulted in a win for me between 3 and 7 moves later depending on the option Shikaku took.

Shikaku looked at the board following my move for a few moments before he started moving the pieces back to a starting position. He looked a little bit more awake now.

"There's fast learners and then there's you." Shikaku muttered as he, replaced the pieces, "I can see the exercises I had planned aren't going to be much use since you apparently already have more than a beginners grasp of the game. Tell me, who told you we'd be playing Shogi."

I shrugged my shoulders shaking my head to convey to him that no one had and Shikaku sat back in his chair looking at me carefully. "Damn, you aren't lying." he said at length. "OK let's play some practice games."

What followed seemed like consecutive games played one after another, many of which Shikaku ended a few moves in, others towards the end game, he didn't give any indication to why he was ending the games but as time went on his grin got wider and wider. My mind felt like it was getting a workout, every game he employed a new tactic, every midgame introduced more and more elaborate traps. I began to sweat with concentration finding these before they tightened around me. Some games he had me make moves to a time limit, others he distracted me with questions, I began to enter a trance like state, the part of me answering him sequestered from the part that was analysing the game.

Finally he swept the pieces back into their starting places and said it was time for a 'real' game. I raised my eyebrows, if this was going to be a real game what were we doing before?

From the start though I could tell this was markedly different, Shikaku was apparently pulling his punches before, I moved sagaciously through the early game, taking control of the board where I could, retreating when it was prudent. The real breakthrough didn't come until the end of the mid game and it wasn't to my benefit. My rook was forced into a trade with a pawn with only the consolation of another pawn in a few moves time. I tried to play as well as I could from there but Shikaku could smell blood in the water and we didn't get much further before I could see the end coming and I conceded. It was none too soon as Yoshino bustled in with food which brought me to the sudden realisation that I was actually quite hungry.

"Shikaku, you can't play through the night, you need to stop to eat at least. Don't act so irresponsible when you're injured." Yoshino remonstrated.

Wait. through the night? I pushed the sliding door next to me open slightly and found the sky in the ending stages of twilight, slipping into deepest dark. We had been playing for close to 7 or 8 hours I realised with shock.

Yoshino began filling a plate for me and I put my hands up to refuse, Yoshino looked at me and passed me the plate saying "Don't be silly, you're a guest in my house it's my job to make sure you're comfortable."

"I don't want to impose." I responded.

Her face grew a little harder. "Didn't I say not be silly. After all you'll be staying for the night anyway, I couldn't send you home at this time."

I got a little flustered but Shikaku cut in for me, "There's no reasoning with her Ko, once she's made up her mind that's the way it is, might as well accept it."

She cuffed him over his head, "I said his name is Kei." Shikaku just hung his head sighing.

Yoshino brought the pot back to the kitchen to place on the still warm hearth before coming back into the living room where we sat around the finished Shogi game. Yoshino saw I had lost and told me not to worry about losing, Shikaku hadn't lost since before he graduated the academy.

"And yet he came within one move of bringing me to a draw in his very first game." Shikaku drawled.

Yoshino did a double take, "Against you? You must be slipping in your old age Shikaku." she said jokingly.

Shikaku shook his head still staring down at the board, "No. I think our guest might be the most talented player I've ever played."

I covered up my embarrassment by digging in to the food and almost let out a groan at the taste.

"This is amazing." I communicated to Yoshino, who waved me off.

Eventually we finished our food and Yoshino told me I would be sleeping in the living room, there were other rooms in the house but they hadn't been occupied in some time and needed renovating. I accepted this gratefully, I didn't need anything more than the floor space to lay down.

They left me after the meal with Shikaku telling me to get a good sleep because he had some real teaching to perform tomorrow and after he wanted to play some more Shogi.

* * *

That morning, with Kakashi

Kakashi had set off with plenty of time, he had packed a bag full of survival gear at Orochimaru's request - he had sent a message the previous evening asking him to bring whatever he thought he would need to survive in a hostile environment.

Finding his way to training ground 44 was easy, every shinobi in the village knew where it was though many were unsure how it got there. Some were of the opinion that it was a jutsu of the Shodai Hokage gone wrong, his father had mentioned one time that it had been the site of many biological experiments in the past and in the end they had simply closed it off to prevent what was in getting out.

'It would certainly explain the huge metal fence around it' Kakashi thought to himself.

He had been told to meet with Orochimaru at 10 in the morning at gate number 12., luckily this wasn't on the other side of the forest and was only a small walk along the perimeter. Arriving there Kakashi gazed at the sun and judged he had made it with perhaps 15 minutes to spare so he waited.

Kakashi jerked to alertness when the gate at his back rustled to life and swung open, standing on the other side was a pale looking man dressed in even paler robes. He matched the description his father had given him before so he greeted him with a nod.

"Orichimaru."

"Hmmm, you look like you came prepared." Orochimaru began, his voice was raspy like wood dragged over stone, every sentence was clipped at the end.

Kakashi nodded patting his supplies bag, "You told me to bring everything I might need so I did."

"Oh," Orochimaru's slit like eyes sharpened, "Show me."

Laying out all of his equipment Orochimaru looked on without comment but then eventually delivered his verdict.

"You brought a adequate amount of tools such as your ninja wire and kunai but you brought far too much food, the food you have here is what you would take on a month long mission, in a real life survival scenario you will not have that luxury, repack 3 days worth and seal the rest in this scroll." He said throwing Kakashi a scroll.

With that done Orochimaru told Kakashi to follow him and began to walk back into the forest.

They walked for almost half an hour and encountered no other life other than trees and some huge fauna during that time before Orochimaru stopped in a small clearing.

"This is where I leave you. Your first task will be to survive 2 weeks. If you prove yourself capable of that I will teach you some skills you may find useful."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed, "2 weeks where am I supposed to find water and -" He stopped trying to ask a question as Orochimaru disappeared in a shunshin and instead bit off a shout of frustration as he kicked a small rock.

* * *

The first day was hard. There was a reason they called this place the forest of death. Kakashi was attacked by two enormous insects during the first few hours foraging but eventually found a source of water and he set up camp nearby. The water itself was safe, he had tested a sample with one of the water purification indicators he had brought with him.

Unlike everything else in the forest which was decidedly not safe. He witnessed a small animal eat a fauna he would normally have thought of as edible outside the forest only for the animal to claw at its face moments later and then run out of sight.

Kakashi had decided that whilst he had food to last another few days he should look into setting up traps and scouting out animals that looked edible. He lit a fire that first night but found out quite swiftly that he would have to hide the presence of his fire in this forest at night due to the attention it attracted from the other inhabitants of the forest.

He lay down that night jerking to alertness every few minutes when some new horror of the forest let out a call from the darkness.

* * *

I woke early the next morning in the Nara's living room and spent the time meditating outside as the morning gave life to itself. I only realised I had company when my head was gently nudged by something soft and wet.

It was one of the deer I had seen wandering around the compound the previous day, it's dark eyes betrayed no fear of me and I reached out to gently stroke his neck, it leaned into my hand as it knelt down beside me. Strange. I had thought deer to be much more skittish creatures.

Its was around 8 in the morning when Shikaku looked out from the kitchen and found me sat, still with the deer at my side. He rose an eyebrow before snorting into his drink, "He's a brave one, it's rare for one of the deer of the forest to approach someone outside of the Nara clan let alone take to someone like that one has."

The deer looked up when Shikaku spoke, in a way that was a little unnerving, it seemed almost like it was trying to understand what Shikaku was saying.

I smiled up at Shikaku before asking "Training?"

"Don't beat around the bush do you?" He took a final mouthful of his water before continuing, "Yeah, we'll be starting in around half an hour but first there's some stuff you should know about the Nara clan."

I nodded as Shikaku took a moment to sit down on the other side of the deer, his legs hanging off the porch, "Most of the village knows us as medicine makers or tacticians but the Nara's most important job is looking after the clan forest. It's been here since before Konoha was a village and so have the Nara - It's why we haven't moved to a more central area within the village. I can't tell you everything about the forests significance to us but don't worry about that you won't need to know for your training. Our main job is making sure the deer don't range too far and that is what you'll be helping me with today." He finished with a smirk.

"I'll be shepherding?" I think my hands as I signed the question reflected the amount of confusion I had.

Shikaku just laughed, "Yes we will. You might even learn a thing or two."

* * *

Shikaku gave me an ornate staff and told me to keep it on me whenever I was in the forest, the shepherding itself wasn't really an active task, its was a job that involved more passive management of the deer in concert with other members of the Nara clan who looked after their own areas, instead of pushing deer in a certain direction it was an activity that involved more analysation and the anticipation of where the deer might head next and guiding that movement, the Nara clan head made it look easy but when he let me take the lead we lost a deer pretty quickly.

I examined the forest floor and the trees around where we had picked up the trail of a deer that had slipped past the perimeter.

"They tread lightly" I signed to Shikaku, "But this buck left a mark from his antlers on the bark of that tree."

Shikaku looked where I had pointed and nodded "You have sharp eyes, he can't have been gone more than a few minutes but that way leads to another of the areas my clan members manage - I'll go ahead and let them know what happened, they won't mind just one more to manage."

So saying Shikaku sedately ambled away through the trees, he had explained that the forest, whilst not quite holy to the Nara, was a thing that commanded their utmost respect and leaping through the trees was something very much frowned upon.

I leaned against a tree as I waited for Shikaku to return keeping watch for any other deer that might try to slip past this way. After a few minutes leaning against the tree I became aware of a… thrumming. Seemingly from the tree. I placed a hand on the bark of the tree and concentrated. It was faint but I could definitely feel something, and it wasn't the usual natural chakra that oozed from all plants, by the time Shikaku returned the only thing I had been able to learn was that it felt old. Ancient.

* * *

The rest of the day I didn't seem to make much progress in my shepherding skills but luckily Shikaku stepped in before I made any major missteps. It was like he had direct line to the deer, a sixth sense for where they were heading next. His skill I could admire though I wasn't sure how it related to what he was supposed to be teaching me.

Surprisingly we didn't play anymore Shogi that day instead Shikaku spent the time as we ate dinner asking me questions, they started innocuous enough, questions of the work of the day but soon they came to become questions about how I came to decisions, over painstaking hours he began to pick apart my thoughts around how I came to those decisions, from there the questions quickly became philosophical and eventually Shikaku started asking me questions that seemed less like questions and more like puzzles. One such exchange went as follows:

"What is a game?"

I frowned. In fairness I was beginning to feel weirdly slow witted, "It is … a competition between two or more people."

"So you could not have a game where you were alone in playing it?"

Well that was not true, certainly I knew there were games you could play with cards that required only yourself. I modified my answer, "It is a fun activity?"

"Some people find fun in a fight, does that make fights a kind of game?"

My frown deepened. I felt like Shikaku was trying to guide me to some kind of understanding but I wasn't grasping what it was.

Shikaku observed me for a few moments before relenting, "Perhaps I can put this another way. Do you ever really think you can come up with a perfect definition for what a game is? A definition that includes every example that someone might put before you and also exclude everything that we could all agree is not a game?"

"I… I'm not sure."

Shikaku leaned forward looking intently at me now. "Have you ever reflected on the fact that everybody knows what a game is, regardless of what the fact we can't, or at the very least, struggle to put a definition to it. I can say the words Shogi, Solitaire, fight and you, I or really anyone, instinctively know that one of those is not a game despite it matching many of the definitions you might come up with for what a game is."

I looked down at my hands. How could we categorise something without setting the conditions for what it was first? The more I thought about it the deeper I fell into the sinkhole Shikaku had opened before me.

Shikaku nodded to himself "It's late, we should get some sleep we've got another long day tomorrow."

He left me still wondering how I could really trust how I came to rational decisions when I couldn't even rationalise a concept as simple as what a game was. I laid down to sleep wondering if Kakashi was having more or less luck with his training.

* * *

Kakashi tried to stay still despite the small bug that had landed on his face. Much of Kakashi's clothes had gone and he had smeared mud across himself and hung himself from a tree for much of the evening. It was his 4th day. He had been forced to seek the refuge of a cave after it became apparent that some kind of acid was eating through his tent. He had little luck in catching any food, the creatures of the night were much too good at hearing for him to catch them and the ones during the day always saw him even when he was perfectly hidden and still.

He had learned through trial and error that most of the animals in the forest didn't see as animals usually did but instead somehow sensed the heat around them to see. This was why Kakashi had taken the measure to cover himself in mud. He was desperate, his last rations ran out that morning and he needed to find food.

Below him a tusked boar entered the small clearing, Kakashi had tried traps, the creatures here were too hardy even for the most lethal ones. Kakashi would have to take this boar down himself.

He waited until it was almost directly below him and dropped. It was, luckily, quick work. His sword - one of the few things he had salvaged from the campsite - sliced through the neck of the boar almost as if there were no resistance.

Kakashi smiled to himself. He might survive this training after all.

* * *

AN: Another week another chapter, hopefully I get faster writing these or its going to take forever to reach the end. I made an effort to be sure there wasn't any spelling mistakes in this one so just you try and find one haha. Thanks everyone for the reviews I really enjoy reading them. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'll see you in the next one.


	18. Chapter 18

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

* * *

First light found me meditating again on the porch, trying to reason out what Shikaku was trying to say to me the previous evening. It seemed however that I was just chasing my own thoughts in circles. His logical puzzle followed a trail that at some point just ended in darkness.

I was brought back to myself by the sound of the door sliding open.

"Jeez, are you always up so early?" Shikaku's tired voice complained from behind a yawn.

I nodded and fell backwards so that I was laying on my back looking up at him.

He looked down at me for a moment before asking, "Do you always meditate?"

"It helps me to keep myself..." My hands fumbled for a moment as I tried to think of the right word, "Myself?" I finished, my half heartedness sort of framed it like a question though and Shikaku laughed seeing me look frustrated with my attempt at explaining myself.

"I can understand that, we Nara cloudwatch a lot and to us that is just like meditation. Keeps us together, keeps us true to who we are. Have you thought about what I asked last night?"

"Yes," I replied, "Not that it helped."

He laughed again, "You're the first person outside the clan that I've even tried to explain these concepts to, if they came easily to you I'd be kind of insulted. I was going to stick with the baser elements of strategy, at least by our standards but as soon as you played Shogi I could tell you had the potential to understand much more."

I widened my eyes, "The first?" clans were usually secretive with their knowledge this much I knew, I must have made some kind of impression for him to try teaching me what I was beginning to understand was coveted clan knowledge.

Shikaku nodded absentmindedly and looked towards the trees, "We Nara have never been much of a trusting people. We joined the village more out of necessity than the benefits it offered, after all it's not like we could have moved away from our forest. But even if we were trusting it takes a special kind of mind to understand the knowledge of our clan. Well, I guess knowledge is a bit misleading. It's really more of a mentality."

He was beginning to lose me again. He was teaching me something but he wasn't giving me knowledge? I shoved the thought away before it brought more headaches.

"Will we be shepherding again today?" I asked

"We will." He confirmed. "But you won't be with me, today you'll be with Maen. I think he might be able to help with that mental block you're feeling."

I sure hoped so.

* * *

Maen on first examination seemed a brusque individual, his face was hardened and his expression meeting me didn't betray any feeling he had about taking care of me this afternoon. He shared few words at first but I quickly learned that the reality was he just had different priorities. When Maen watched the deer his expression softened, it seemed he felt a real connection to his work, the few words we exchanged that morning seemed to confirm it, unless it was about the work, the deer or forest any attempt at conversation was usually one sided.

When it was finally my turn to shepherd in the afternoon Maen grew more and more frustrated as time went on, I hadn't lost any deer - yet! But his face grew harder and started to twitch until he eventually started to try and give me advice.

"You're not going about this right." He began.

I rose an eyebrow, "What am I doing wrong?" I asked.

Maen looked like he wanted to say something but after a few moments of internal turmoil held his tongue.

That was until a few minutes later.

"You aren't thinking this through right." Maen eventually ground out.

Thinking this through right? I was just trying to keep ahead of the flock, as impossible as it seemed at times. I knew where they all were but predicting the moves of the flock as a whole was something that was taking all of my concentration to head them off before a movement became a migration.

I nodded to Maen to indicate I had heard and tried to think more about where the deer might move next rather than where they were going now.

This didn't placate Maen though who let out a groan of frustration and finally said, "No you're thinking too much, don't think more."

"Think… less?" I asked unsure.

"Well. Kind of yes."

"Kind of?"

But Maen wouldn't be drawn anymore and the day continued with him looking more and annoyed.

* * *

By the time I returned back to the clan compound I had gotten frustrated myself. When I saw Shikaku that evening I asked if he wanted to play anymore Shogi. At least that I understood. When he played Shogi there were lessons of tactics to be learned the rest of what he had tried to teach me though seemed banal at best and incomprehensible at worst.

Shikaku looked at me with his calculating eyes for a moment before shaking his head "Not yet. You still don't understand."

"Understand what?" I asked frustrated.

"I can't say." Shikaku replied.

"Minato chose you to teach me tactics why won't you tell me what it is you're trying to teach" I finally let out in an explosion of sign language.

"You misunderstand. It's not that I won't say. It's that I can't."

"How can you teach something you can't communicate?"

Shikaku smiled, "Very carefully. Come inside, my wife has been trying to get me to sit down so she can change my bandages all day, we can discuss this in the living room whilst she does."

I followed Shikaku inside and sat across from him at the now empty Shogi table as he took a few moments to gather his thoughts. Whilst he was Yoshino came in with a pail of water and some medical equipment.

Finally Shikaku seemed to decide where to start, "How did your Shepherding go today."

I told him about how I had tried and whilst I hadn't lost any of the deer that day Maen had seemed frustrated at my attempts, I told him about the few things he had said about me thinking too much.

Shikaku thought for a few minutes when I finished occasionally flinching as Yoshino poked at a particularly sensitive area. It was the first time I had seen the injury he had gotten. He was definitely scarred for life, the wounds had cut up his face in two strokes.

"Maen wasn't wrong but… hmm he wasn't entirely right either. I suppose the easiest way of saying it is what I'm trying to do in teaching you is teaching you a different way of thinking. Maen was wise to stay silent though. It's more than a different way of thinking." Shikaku stopped speaking for a few moments with a ghost of the same frustration that was on Maen's face.

Suddenly his face lit up, "When you meditate, you're not really concentrating on anything are you?"

I shook my head. I generally didn't. It helped me to put my mind in order more than anything.

"And yet you would not say you had stopped thinking would you?" He continued.

I thought for a moment, I suppose some part of me was still thinking, they were fleeting thoughts though, nothing really recognisable as a cognizant thought. Eventually I nodded.

"It's kind of similar to that." Shikaku said as if that explained everything.

I hung my head, that didn't really help.

"Hey Kei." I looked up at Yoshino who was finishing putting the last of the bandages on Shikaku, "Don't beat yourself up about this, Nara's are brought up learning this and some don't even begin to grasp it until adulthood, my husband here is just bad at explaining because it came naturally to him before he even started at the academy. They can't speak about what they're trying to explain so they should remain silent."

I lay awake that night considering Yoshino's words, how could they not speak about what they were teaching me? They were obviously making an attempt to but it wasn't really helping me to understand what I was missing.

* * *

Just over a week passed from then with me still considering what everyone in the clan had said. Shikaku had shepherded with me since that day with Maen and he seemed to be at a loss to make me understand so he had begun asking me questions about Shogi as I shepherded the deer, questions I had begun to answer almost absentmindedly as the main part of my focus was on the deer, I was on a 3 day streak without losing one so I didn't want to ruin my record.

On this day we were shepherding further into the forest than we had before and Shikaku had told me to keep close as people had gotten lost this far in. I had gained the trick of walking silently through underbrush without breaking any twigs, it was of the tricks I envied the Nara for when I had first taken up this work. Just one snapped twig could be enough to make a nearby deer bolt so being able to move without that being an issue was invaluable. It would also help in my missions as a shinobi, walking silently in a forest was not a skill we learned in the academy but thinking on it now it seemed to be one of the first things we should be taught.

Shikaku had been asking me questions for most of the day, sometimes about Shogi but occasionally about other things, I couldn't remember a great deal of what he had asked, the enquiries washed over and through me without affecting my concentration on the deer.

It was approaching the end of the day when he brought everything to a halt with a one word question.

"Why?"

I flinched in surprise as I glanced away from the area before us and looked at him asking to reiterate the question.

"If the pieces on the Shogi board represented various elements of the village why would you think the King represented that?" He asked.

I shrugged before answering "It's what really matters right? I mean you'd protect it at all costs as well wouldn't you?"

Shikaku nodded to himself considering before seeing the fading light.

"Come, we have maybe 20 minutes of remaining light, let's head back to the compound before we're tripping on roots."

* * *

When we got back Yoshino had just started cooking dinner and didn't want us under her feet so I took the opportunity to meditate outside and Shikaku lay down with a sigh in the grass.

"There are tales," Shikaku began after a few minutes, "Of civilisations beyond the borders of the elemental nations that have different languages."

I opened my eyes and looked at Shikaku to show I was listening. Where had this come from?

"I've done some small study of these languages myself, something that I have come across is that these other languages invariably have words that we have no word for in this language. Or at least no single word, we could probably describe the concept or idea they were trying to convey but we'd only ever be able to approximate the true meaning that members of the culture that speak that language understand inherently. What do you think that tells us about language?"

More questions. I frowned into the evening thinking and eventually said, "It would mean that language is formed from the needs of the cultures that speak it. The words that they bring fruit to are brought about by a necessity of their view of the world."

Shikaku nodded, "With that being the case do you think that using our language we can come up with an answer to any given question - even using multiple words?"

I thought on it as the darkness of night deepened, luckily we could still see each other from the glow permeating the paper doors. "You're saying that there are some ideas or concepts we can't communicate because we don't have the words to?"

"Just so!" He exclaimed, "But those ideas, those concepts still exist don't they? Regardless of whether we can communicate them or not, they just have not been given the form of a word between two or more people that understand what they are speaking of."

I nodded, that they existed couldn't be doubted just as it couldn't be doubted that there were things I didn't know even if I wasn't aware of what they were.

"There is a frame of mind that the Nara inhabit more and more naturally where they do not use words to think of solutions to problems instead they allow their mind to take in the parameters of the question they are trying to answer and their minds produce an answer outside of language for them to interpret and carry out."

Shikaku seemed quite animated saying that, like he had finally talked himself out of a box he had been stuck in and I think I was finally trying to understand what he had been trying to teach me.

"You're trying to teach me to think… without thinking?" I asked.

Shikaku laughed, "You see the problem, we have no way to communicate what we do."

"Then how do I learn to think that way?"

"You are close, I can see it in you. I would meditate on it Ko, that's how many of the clan first enter the state of mind."

I nodded, "But how does this help me with tactics or strategy?" I asked

"Think Ko, when you see a problem in battle or even in Shogi and you think through a problem you are restricting yourself to the thoughts and concepts of the language we speak, imagine if you were unrestricted."

My eyes widened in understanding but I got no further as Yoshino called that dinner was finally ready.

* * *

It was at the end of my second week when I first discovered what Shikaku was trying to communicate and it happened when I was shepherding the deer. I had fallen into the habit of entering a quasi meditative state when I was out in the forest, sat in my usual pose when possible but with my eyes open. I was being bombarded by questions as usual whilst my concentration was mainly on the deer when I realised Shikaku had fallen silent, and it suddenly seemed so obvious how the deer were going to move. It was like I had been concentrating on winning a small battle when herding them but there was a larger war going on I hadn't been paying attention to.

Of course I was so surprised that I fell out of that state of mind as quickly as I realised I had entered it. Shikaku though was openly grinning at me for the first time.

"I Told you Ko. You're the first none Nara that has even been able to comprehend the idea all you needed from there was some guidance. Let's head back to the compound, you're done with shepherding for now."

Privately I was equally happy that I didn't have to do anymore herding as I was that i had finally managed to do what Shikaku had been trying to teach me. I wondered on the way back if this state of mind was only possible in this world, perhaps because of chakra, or whether it was possible in my old life as well. Certainly the limitations of language existed in both.

* * *

Shikaku spent much of the next few days leaving me to try to meditate to induce the state on my own whilst he went out into the forest during the day. It was much harder than it sounded on the surface, the trick wasn't to not think it was to think without using words and since at this point I had the better part of 4 languages up there it seemed like they were taking up a lot of space. I managed it sporadically which was frustrating but Shikaku told me that the time I would be able to keep myself in that state would increase if I used something to focus myself. Many Nara within the clan when first learning used a handsign to focus their concentration which didn't seem to make sense at first but the more I tried using a bird handsign I was surprised to find that it worked in a very counterintuitive way. When entering the state it's very easy to become distracted by something and find yourself snapping out of it but with something already there using up your attention there is nothing short of physical interruptions that can take your mind away from the task.

In the evenings when Shikaku returned he would set up the Shogi board in different starting positions, often with different rules that he explained beforehand and we would play. There seemed to be some method to the seeming madness with which he made up rules and starting positions since he often asked me my motivations for different moves. Rarely did he offer any counter argument but we would continue to play and more often than not come to a promising position at which point he would reset the board to a different position. When I did not come to an advantageous position though Shikaku would ask where I thought I went wrong and I would sometimes spend hours considering the board before giving an answer. He had yet to show disappointment at something I said so I assumed what I had given was the right answer.

With a week of training remaining I found I could maintain what I had dubbed the 'Nara state' for up to 10 minutes, Shikaku told me that when figuring out a plan in advance often that was all I would be given if not less so it should suffice for my purposes but he encouraged me to keep trying. He gave me the option of coming with him to shepherd the deer during the day or staying at the compound to train and I quickly chose the option to stay behind. I spent the mornings training physically since I hadn't had the chance for the last few weeks and the afternoons training with the Nara state.

On the first evening of the last week though Shikaku finally brought me into his living room to play a real game of Shogi.

* * *

Shikaku returned from his day working in the forest looking pretty animated, at least for a Nara. I opened my eyes and broke out of my meditation when I sensed him coming, "Hey Shikaku, what have you got planned this evening. Finally going to teach me something? You've still got a week." I teased.

Shikaku rolled his eyes at me, "How'd you like a real game of Shogi?"

I leapt to my feet in enthusiasm and Shikaku snorted, "Alright I can see I'll get no complaints about that."

When Shikaku opened the door to the living room I heard Yoshino let out a sound like "Eep" from inside and saw something colourful set on some wooden apparatus be pushed quickly out of sight before I entered the room.

"Shikaku, you're back early." Yoshino said, it sounded almost like she was scolding him.

Shikaku shrugged before saying, "I thought it was time I gave our guest here a rematch."

Yoshino's eyes lit up, "You're finally going to give him a rematch?"

Shikaku nodded as he took his place at one end of the Shogi board and I took my place at the other.

Yoshino looked torn for a moment before she announced that she would watch this game.

Shikaku layed out the pieces before looking at me, "Ready kid?"

As ready as I was going to be I supposed I nodded and looked at the board as Shikaku took his first move.

I had learned in my time practicing the Nara state to meditate with my eyes open, it was harder but the handsign definitely helped and as I adopted the pose and made my first move Shikaku grinned visciously.

The opening game was contentious, both of making moves to take control of the center of the board, an area that was traditionally key in the early game of Shogi. We both made losses and as time went on the game looked to swing either way, we entered the mid game with me technically ahead but my concentration was slipping. I wasn't sure how long it had been since we started but it was far longer than I had held the Nara state before. I visibly perspired as Shikaku leaned further and further in as the game took shape.

Shikaku gained back the difference between us with a trap I saw far too late to prevent towards the end of the mid game and he slapped down his spoils next to the board with satisfaction. I had to hand it to him, it was an extremely intricate trap he had to have been putting it into place for the better part of the game.

As we continued into the end of the mid game I saw a change come over Shikaku, he took longer to take his moves for the first time. His hand occasionally hesitated over his pieces. Not that I was doing much better.

Finally we saw it at the same time. The result. Shikaku leaned backwards to lay on the floor even as I laid my head on the table in consternation.

"What happened? Who won?" Yoshino demanded. She had left only for a few moments during the game to put some food from the previous day on to reheat saying she didn't have time to make a new meal.

Shikaku saved me the trouble of replying, "It's a draw."

Yoshino gasped, "You're joking! Shikaku Nara didn't win a game of Shogi?! Wait until the clan hear about this!"

Shikaku mumbled something that sounded like "Troublesome." before he sat back up and looked at me. "We'll be playing again tomorrow." It wasn't a question and something I could see in Shikaku's eyes was hungry for another match right now. If it wasn't so late he might he might have pushed for one, as it was Yoshino ushered him from the room to go to bed and they left me next to my futon looking at the game. I had played as well as I thought myself able, how could I improve?

* * *

The next day I couldn't calm down enough to meditate and Yoshino wouldn't let me in the house saying that she had some work to do inside the house and couldn't be disturbed. I spent the day practicing my katas until I thought I was going to lose my mind from waiting.

Eventually though evening began to fall and Shikaku walked back from the forest, he too one look at me and said "Let's go."

When we sat down this time the door was left open, apparently Yoshino had told someone about Shikaku nearly losing a game because Maen had shown up sitting on the porch to watch. I didn't mind, I barely noticed my surroundings when I was playing Shikaku.

Unfortunately this game was as close as the last and both myself and Shikaku were on tenterhooks right to the closing stages when at last we finished we looked at each other. "Rematch tomorrow?" I signed at Shikaku.

"I wouldn't miss it." He answered.

"Could someone let the dullards among us know what the result was?" Yoshino asked, Maen was looking at the board as if he was trying to work out what had happened.

"Another draw." I explained with a grimace.

"Argh! I was really hoping for you to win this time Kei." she complained.

"When was the last time you didn't win a game Shikaku?" Maen asked from over a bowl of rice Yoshino had cooked for dinner.

"Not since my old man took that head injury. So nearly 12 years." Shikaku replied, though he like me was not really paying attention still staring down at the board.

* * *

I didn't win the next day much to the disappointment of the onlookers we had now garnered, hoping to see Shikaku finally lose a game of Shogi. Over the next few days though the crowd grew and grew regardless of whether I lost or drew until finally on my last evening at the Nara compound there was an entire twilight vigil watching as we took our places across each other. Maen was still at the front on the porch but the crowd stretched off the porch into the back garden, there were even some Nara watching from the hallway at the entrance of the house. Yoshino had jokingly said a few days before that she wasn't going to be feeding everyone who showed up but apparently they had already thought of that for they showed up everyday with hampers full of bowls of rice and cooked eel.

I had put a lot of thought into my games with Shikaku, analysing every part of every game we had played looking for a weakness, finding none I had started looking at some of the assumptions we made as wrote in the game, setups for traps, ways of dividing the opponents pieces, of gaining a tempo of attack when on the defensive. Eventually I came to the opening. Traditionally the main aim was to take control of the center of the field before the opponent could, after all control of the battlefield was a major boon when the battle truly began. I had begun to consider other methods however, maybe mounting a better defense from the start could be a better way to go, or perhaps making the main aim to be the disruption of the enemies pieces. After long meditation on the problem I felt I was ready when I finally sat across from him and he laid out the pieces looking somewhat embarrassed to have so many coming just to see him play, or more accurately hoping to see him lose.

As soon as we opened I could see Shikaku was taken aback by my apparent change in tack. It was a tactic I had only fully thought out earlier that day and it combined an attempt at mounting a solid defense whilst simultaneously developing the stronger back row into more advantageous positions to divide his front. Shikaku was slow to respond but he eventually made his first developments, still trying to take control of the center of the board but setting up safeguards should I make an attempt on those pieces which controlled that territory. I let him. I continued to develop my back pieces and Shikaku continued to create his moving fortress of attack in the center field and as we entered the mid game we were both only one pawn down, it was a much less aggressive opening than we had seen our previous games and there was a sense of both of us feeling out each others tactic going forward.

Halfway into the midgame my true trap began to become apparent, at least to me and as I made every painstaking move I sweated more and more over Shikaku's response. Both too soon and too late he saw it though and I thought I actually saw him rock backwards a little from his seiza position, then he sat forward and his eyes practically crystallised as he examined the board with onyx eyes.

It was a few minutes before his next move, the longest delay in the match and the onlooking crowd were beginning to mutter, apparently one or two of them had seen the trap as well and had communicated it to the rest of them.

Shikaku though was nothing if not masterful. He deployed a method of retreating the pieces that had advanced too far into my waiting trap whilst bleeding off the weaker ones. It was still a considerable conquest from my point of view with 4 of his pieces taken for the mere single pawn I sacrificed.

He continued though and fought every moment of the way. I lost concentration deep into the end game and very nearly lost the game to a last ditch trap Shikaku had set up with the artful execution of a master of his craft. I managed to negate it though and pressed my advantage and at last I looked up at Shikaku who was still looking at the board looking for any way out of the position that was still 8 moves in coming at last though he too raised his face and he gave me warm smile.

"You've outdone all my expectations Ko. I'll be wanting another game soon."

"I look forward to it." I replied.

To answer the muttering crowd he finally turned to them, "OK. I lost. Get it out of your systems."

All of the Nara present gasped before a ripple of laughter started among a few and then another pocket of them and then suddenly it was spreading like wildfire and everyone was laughing at the ridiculousness of it. From their point of view the Clan leader had just lost in Shogi to a mere 6 year old.

* * *

"You're awake already." Yoshino grumbled sleepily.

"mmm" Shikaku replied

"It'll be a shame to see him go." Yoshino said, correctly diagnosing her husbands focus.

"You know," Shikaku said as he shifted onto his side and balanced his head on a hand, "When I was testing him on battlefield tactics he gave me some answers that I really hadn't considered. I've actually devised a new method for how we regiment our forces on the border from one of his own ideas."

"He's a smart kid." Yoshino yawned.

"Smart doesn't come close," he snorted, "I've spoken to kids twice his age who couldn't pick up some of the concepts he learned and combined together in minutes. Do you remember that question my old man used to ask me about the King?"

"That thing again." Yoshino groaned, "Your father was obsessed."

"That kid gave me an answer I had never considered. He may come away from this having taught me more than I taught him"

"He does seem wise beyond his years."

"Sometimes when I look at him I feel like he has plenty of years on him already."

* * *

The next day I made preparations to set out. It would be my first time outside of the Nara compound in a month and I was sure I was going to miss it. They didn't live that far out from the center of Konoha but life here seemed much less complicated than it was in the village proper.

Before I left Shikaku and Yoshino had asked to see me off so I waited on their front porch meditating the morning into daytime when eventually they came out from the house.

I stood up to greet them and Yoshino gripped me in a hug, "You make sure to visit Kei, I haven't seen the entire Nara clan come together for something in a long time. I made this for you."

I was about to ask her what but I felt something draw tight around my hair and grabbing my mane and bringing it to the front so I could examine it I found that Yoshino had tied an artistic looking cloth binding, obviously made by her, keeping my tail neat before it spread out further down. It was a dark green binding that was emblazoned with the Nara clan symbol. I knew it would be a permanent element of my wardrobe from then on, it was both practical and something which already meant a lot to me.

Shikaku came next and gripped my forearm in his hand, "You'll have to visit or I'll have to chase you down for my piece back."

I was about to ask him what he meant but as he moved away I felt him drop something into my hand. It was the King from his personal Shogi set, it looked like he wanted to win it back. I grinned and nodded before signing "You can count on it."

I headed back towards the center of the village and towards the other side of the village to our team training area to meet up with Minato the entire time a large grin stuck on my face.

I wonder if Kakashi's training had gone well.

* * *

AN: As I'm writing this its 2AM on Monday and I have work in 4 hours but I'm really happy with how this chapter turned out, I think this is actually my best chapter so far. Despite this being my second attempt at writing it since my first draft went and deleted itself. I really hoped you enjoyed this too. Those eagle eyed among you may have seen the easter egg I left for the inspiration I had behind the "Nara State" with the paraphrased quote from the source of my inspiration. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'll see you in the next one. Also leave a reviews really do help if you have time!


	19. Chapter 19

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

* * *

Arriving at the training ground I found Minato was already there - likely the work of the Hiraishin, being able to travel to any location you had set a seal seemed a little bit like cheating to me. I had found one of the seals outside my own house even though Minato lived just next door which spoke a great deal to how much he was using the technique.

Minato nodded seeing me "Ah Ko, How was your training? You look well."

I smiled as I greeted Minato "My training went better than I think you might have expected Sensei."

Minato rose an eyebrow and seemed to be about to inquire further but Kakashi streaked in from nowhere, Minato looked faintly surprised so he hadn't sensed his approach, I had only barely sensed some kind of chakra approaching from the very limits of my range before kakashi was suddenly standing next to me.

"Kakashi, right on time!" Minato exclaimed, "You look… different, it looks like Ko wasn't the only one to have some success with his training."

Different was right, disregarding my sense of his chakra which now crackled and snapped like it was lightning trapped in a bottle Kakashi had somewhat changed his clothing, gone was his heavier bulkier jacket which he used to hold much of his equipment. Instead over his torso he had a sleek, form fitting dark blue t-shirt that stretched up onto his face hiding the lower half, around his waist was a utility belt and below that were a pair of cargo shorts with more pockets, it seemed like he had really tried to cut down on the weight of the items he carried as well as cutting down his profile, looking at him I had no doubt that at nighttime he would be next to impossible to pick out against the darkness.

Kakashi gave what I interpreted to be a smile - it was still hard to tell with the lower part of his face covered and replied, "Orochimaru's training was… challenging and I had to make some changes but I have been able to adapt."

Minato nodded, "Good. Well, it only seems right that we have a good old fashioned spar to get familiar with our new skills but before that why don't we go for a meal to celebrate."

I nodded eagerly looking forward to a meal after a month at the Nara compound, Yoshino was a great cook but the food they provided was, matching with their lifestyle, very simple.

When I looked to Kakashi though he seemed almost stunned at the idea of food, Minato frowned and waved his hand in front of Kakashi, "Hello? Kakashi? Food?"

Kakashi blinked a few times before suddenly nodding enthusiastically.

Minato grabbed both of us and in a flash of yellow light we were stood in front of an Akimichi Yakiniku restaurant. I staggered a few steps before finding my feet and Kakashi stepped to a wall to lean against whilst we regained our bearings.

"Sensei," I groaned, "At least warn us."

Minato looked as though he had just been successful in his own private practical joke though and roundly corralled us into the restaurant where we were pointed to a half filled booth.

"Long time no see brats," Tsunade called as we walked towards the table, it looked like Minato had invited everyone here - even Gai was sat at one end next to a chuckling Sakumo. Next to them on the other side of Tsunade was Kushina and Jiraiya.

"Hey Kei, no fair I think you've grown taller than me since you went away!" Kushina exclaimed, and looking at her I realised she may be right, I was at the very least equal with her by my estimation.

Jiraiya pulled me in next to him as I made to sit down in the booth, "Hey kid, how's it going?"

I shrugged at him but grinned back, really it was impossible not to feel at least a little bit jovial with Jiraiya around, he was one of those people who carried his presence into every room he walked into.

Minato scratched the back of his head as he took his seat last, "I did invite Orochimaru Kakashi but he said he wouldn't be available."

It looked like Kakashi went a little green, though it could have been my imagination, "That's OK." He eventually replied.

"Bah! who needs that crafty snake when you have a soon to be bestselling author among you?" Jiraiya proclaimed.

"You a best selling author?" Tsunade snorted, "You can barely write mission reports."

"It's true! It's a tale of heroism, I've been working on it for a long time!" Jiraiya argued.

"I'll believe it when I see it." Tsunade dismissed.

"Why does nobody believe me." Jiraiya complained dejected.

"Can I read it Sensei?" Minato asked. I had not taken Minato for much of a reader, at least not of fiction.

Jiraiya seemed to gain back a second wind at Minato's question, "Absolutely, in fact any of you can have one of my signed first editions if you want them!"

I wasn't sure what to think, Jiraiya writing a book? It seemed pretty out of character for him, I didn't get much longer to ruminate on the idea though because our waiter appeared to take our orders after which the conversation turned to other things.

"So Ko, What did those Nara teach you?" Jiraiya asked as we ate our meal, Minato was showing Kakashi some new ninjutsu he was working on. Kushina and Tsunade seemed to be animatedly discussing something related to medical seals, I had been trying to follow the conversation but it seemed their ideas were fairly well developed already and it became harder to follow the more they talked. Gai was being as loud as he usually was but Sakumo seemed to be happily engaging him in conversation.

"Mostly tactics and strategy… and how to herd deer." I replied.

"Herding deer?" He laughed, "They must have taught you more than that, I have my own friends inside the Nara clan and they seemed very impressed with you."

"You won't tease secrets from me that easily," I signed back, I wasn't sure whether the Nara state was a clan secret but it was better so be safe than sorry with such information, besides I wasn't even sure how to explain it. "They were probably just impressed because I beat Shikaku in a game of Shogi."

Jiraiya's eyes grew large as he almost choked on his food, "You beat the Nara clan head in a game of Shogi?" He coughed, "I'm not sure whether I believe you kid."

"It's true, the whole clan came out to see since I was coming close the entire last week."

Jiraiya looked at me for a few moments before going back to his food, "You're either a very good liar or a prodigy in shogi as well."

I decided to turn the conversation away from my training since I wasn't sure what I could tell Jiraiya, "What is your book about anyway?"

Jiraiya actually seemed to grow somewhat sober at my question, "Do you remember the great toad sage?", I nodded that I did, he was a hard one to forget, "When I first saw him he said..." He seemed to debate internally for a moment, "Well, he predicted I would write a book anyway, I'm about as surprised as you about that but it seemed right at a certain point. But my book is about an idea I first heard when I was out of the village during the last war, about a world after all of the fighting. I thought for a time that after the war we would have peace but fighting continues. It's more subdued than it was before and a country wouldn't think of fighting another head on, at least not yet - no one's strong enough for that yet. So I got to thinking how would you bring about true peace. Lasting peace. And what kind of person would be needed to bring that about. I don't think I have my answer yet but I'm going to keep trying."

I nodded to Jiraiya even as my respect for him grew. True peace. Maybe my old life had something like it. Or at least the battles were going on so far away word of it never reached me. It was a worthy goal. Jiraiya brought me out of my thoughts suddenly with a question.

"Hey Ko, how would you go about creating a world like that?"

What a question. How indeed. Wars always broke out for a reason, sometimes it's the only way for a people to survive, sometimes it is over something as slight as a perceived insult. The problem seemed to be that making peace, forging ties, righting wrongs of the past - all of these things - they were all much harder than simply making war and attempting to accomplish them by force. It seemed then that I had some kind of answer.

"I would make war harder than peace. Most of the time people fight and make war because it is easier than making peace. I think if peaceful solutions were made easier than violent ones then we might see a world like the one you describe."

Jiraiya looked at me oddly, "You think warfare is easy for ninjas?"

"Oh no, not for the actually combatants, it is of course much harder for them but in war they are really more like innocent bystanders to the real perpetrators of war." I replied, waving away his misunderstanding.

Jiraiya hummed, "And how would you find these 'real perpetrators'"

"Find those who benefit." I replied simply.

Jiraiya nodded seriously in thought for a few moments before turning away and writing something in a notebook he pulled from seemingly nowhere. Eventually he turned back.

"It's a shame we didn't have this talk earlier kid, I've already sent off my final version to print but I think there is something valuable you could have added." Jiraiya lamented.

* * *

By the time we left it was still mid afternoon and Minato said he would meet us back at the training area to see how we had improved that month. Kakashi and I nodded, feeling a shared sense of relief that he wasn't going to use the Hiraishin to transport us back.

As Kakashi and I made our journey over the rooftops of Konoha I used to the time to make a deeper analysis of the change to Kakashi's chakra. Where before it felt like a gentle rumble now it crackled with an alacrity that was almost a little bit uncomfortable, it felt ready to lash out at any moment. When I observed how Kakashi moved I realised how close that was to the truth, when we move as ninja we naturally send chakra to out muscles to bolster them, what I realised Kakashi was doing now was converting some small part of the chakra he sent into electricity in order to speed up his movements, he was probably holding back for my sake on the way back to the training field but when he really tried moving I could tell already it was going to be incredible.

I frowned, there was a drawback though, he was sending charges of untamed electricity, no matter how small they were through his body. It must be incredibly painful. A glance at Kakashi's face gave no hint of that though, he didn't even seem to be concentrating much on the chakra which if left unattended could cause muscular spasms all over his body, maybe even causing damage to his heart or brain. He must be doing this subconsciously. By habit. His teacher must have been a truly fearsome taskmaster to ingratiate this level of subconscious chakra control in a month - I felt like I had been slacking off in comparison.

Naturally Minato was already stood awaiting our arrival, even if we had run at top speed we wouldn't have beaten him practically teleporting here.

"OK guys, it's time to see how much you really learned. It's you two against me, no rules but try not to hurt yourselves." he said with a small smile, he withdrew a kunai and continued, "We start when this kunai hits the ground."

He threw it into the air, it was hard to track its trajectory with the sun being out so I kept my eyes on Minato and slowly slid into my stance, I could feel Kakashi doing the same to the side of me, he flicked a quick sign my way, he wanted to regroup and plan after the initial engagement, I nodded and we both sweated out the precious few seconds left before the kunai hit the ground.

When it did I immediately summoned all of my strength and stomped on the ground, I couldn't cause any huge damage to the battlefield but with the earth as dry as it was it would be enough to fracture the ground far enough for our purposes. I suspected Minato may have laced this field with his Hiraishin seal prior to us arriving but even small fissures in the seal would disrupt their use.

I was proved correct when Minato immediately crackled out of sight after my stomp. We were just talking to one of his Hiraishin clones the real one was already out there watching, waiting to strike. Kakashi soon came to the same conclusion as I and deployed a smoke bomb which we used to escape into the surrounding trees and hopefully not into the waiting arms of Minato.

Happily he was nowhere to be found when we regrouped in a tree, I turned to Kakashi.

"New skills?" I inquired.

"I'm fast."

I rose my eyebrows, he was fast before he went on his training trip surely that wasn't all.

Kakashi saw my skepticism and followed up with "Really fast."

Really fast? Coming from Kakashi that was fast indeed but it didn't really help in formulating a plan against a man that could teleport at will. I needed more time to think.

"Could you distract?" I asked

"How long?" He replied

After precious moments deliberating I replied, "2 minutes."

Kakashi rolled his shoulders and I practically felt the electricity roiling through him before he said "We'll see."

With that speculative reply he jumped back into the middle of the training field and Minato appeared on the other side.

"You think you can take me alone Kakashi?" Minato goaded.

Kakashi didn't answer but took up a kind of crouched position. For my part I took up a comfortable position in the tree and slipped into the Nara state.

* * *

There was a crackle from Kakashi and then in a flash he was gone, at least to the untrained eye, Minato however never lost track of him though he was impressed with the improvement Kakashi had made in just a month. Minato waited a few moments for Kakashi to make the first move but realised after a few seconds that he was just running circles around him. Correctly surmising his aim was to buy time he decided to start making his own move.

Minato casually swatted a hand in a direction and a tri pronged kunai that couldn't have been there a moment ago flew from his hand straight into the path of Kakashi who somehow managed to anticipate the kick Minato was already midway into when he reappeared in a flash of yellow light in front of Kakashi.

Dodging above the kick Kakashi flipped and tried to deliver and overhead axe kick which Minato almost calmly sidestepped. Minato had a moment to realise he could smell ozone on the air before Kakashi's foot hit the ground and he was moving again at top speed, this time too fast for Minato to dodge a punch came unerringly at his abdomen it seemed to be about to hit but then Minato disappeared again in a flash of yellow light back to where he was stood in the middle of the training field.

Minato observed Kakashi consideringly from where he stood for a few moments before, at an unseen signal, Kakashi moved again and Minato threw a kunai and disappeared in a flash of yellow light.

* * *

I could see what Minato was doing. Every time he moved around the training field he claimed a little bit more of the battlefield for himself, he was careful to be covert but being I had seen him place the seals enough times to know what he was doing. The more he fought Kakashi the more seals were placed. Speaking of Kakashi, his speed was truly astonishing I had not seen such speed from anyone less than a Jonin. It was however visibly new to Kakashi and sometimes his actions were clumsy, coming either too fast or too slow. He also was falling into repeating patterns with little variance, comfortable attacks he had practiced a thousand times, effective especially at these incredible speeds but still limiting used alone.

It seemed that Minato had also realised the same thing and their exchange gradually escalated to become more ninjutsu oriented, this was where Kakashi really began to lose, he had a few useful electric based ninjutsu but he was by no means a specialist, as it stood his taijutsu and his agility were his two specialties.

I had seen enough and already knew the way to the end of this spar. 

Using my Lions Mane jutsu I threw half of the kunai I had on me at Minato to force him to disengage with Kakashi - I would need a few moments to communicate the gist of my plan to him.

As he back-flipped away from the projectiles I followed my kunai and put myself in front of Minato I silently communicated with my hands behind my back to Kakashi before our Sensei realised what I was doing.

Minato caught on quick though and his eyes narrowed even as I was finishing, he didn't waste words and disappeared in a flash of yellow light to his first destination next to me and my plan threw itself into action with kakashi immediately throwing a kunai with ninja wire at Minato who disappeared again to a new location in front of me where Kakashi repeated the same the action as I leaped out of the way of his kunai.

By the time the 4th kunai was thrown Minato seemed to realise something was wrong but it wouldn't do to let him formulate a counter-plan and I engaged him wherever he went forcing him with my destructive taijutsu to teleport away. It was after almost a minute of this fighting that Minato began to try and fight back instead of merely dodging and running away, impressively he managed to catch both of my fists during an engagement and held me trapped there though he was unable to break the stalemate either. Kakashi would have helped but his part in this plan required him to stay where he was.

"I know what you're doing." Minato ground out, he was sweating a little, it seemed he wasn't accustomed to straining this much against an opponent.

"Then stop us." I replied with a smile.

Saying that I brought my hair to bear upon him like a spiked mace striking from above. Minato again disappeared in a flash but I picked up his chakra appearing in the area around Kakashi - It looks like he figured out our plan.

Kakashi held Minato off for the brief seconds it took me to reach him and drive Minato away, somehow keeping a hold of all the ninja wire he had thrown and once I was on top of Minato he teleported away again to a position close to Kakashi though not as close as before and I was able to defend Kakashi before Minato made it to him.

This game went on for a few more minutes with me defending Kakashi as we gradually ruled out the places Minato could teleport to, eventually he would be forced to teleport to a position with ninja wire already in position and Kakashi would zap him.

When finally there seemed there was nowhere left for Minato he smiled and engaged me in taijutsu again but to my surprise he moved much faster than before, internally I cursed, I should have known he was holding back - there was a reason he was a Jonin. I found myself defending on the back foot, but I didn't need a win, I just needed to get Minato into the trap so when he next threw a heavy kick at me - again almost too fast for me to react - instead of dodging I jumped with the kick and grabbed Minato's leg as I went, straight into the webbing of ninja wire that surrounded us.

'Now Kakashi!' I shouted internally, grinning at Minato as we fell into the wire. Minato though only smiled back and right on time I felt the electricity hit my body. There was only one problem though, in the final moments just as I was stunned unconscious by the electricity I saw Minato disappear in another flash of yellow light.

* * *

I came to propped against a tree, blearily I looked around and saw Minato and Kakashi talking a small distance away, seeing me awake they made their way over.

"Did you come up with that plan alone Ko?" Minato asked.

I nodded, I didn't really feel like signing a response. Something about that zap had made me feel a bit nauseous.

"That might be the best tactic an enemy shinobi has come up with to combat the Hiraishin thus far, your time with the Nara has served you well, were it not for the marker I managed to place on Kakashi that one time I got to him honestly I might have struggled." He said still grinning.

I put my head in my hands. We were so close, I should have known he would place a marker on one of us.

"Now don't take it too hard Ko, you two have shown all the qualities I hoped for from your training and more. This next month we are going to train solely on teamwork, with just two of you in the exam how you work together will have to make up for that extra man."

Kakashi nodded and so did I though I probably still looked a little upset at losing.

"You have the rest of this evening free, report back here at 7AM tomorrow."

* * *

The rest of that month we were drilled into the ground on our teamwork. It was valuable training though as much as Kakashi and I came close to resenting each other during that month, by the end of it we knew exactly where each other were in a battle situation and moved as a unit, anticipating and complimenting each other's movements, the hardest part was adapting to Kakashi's insane speed, he left me in the dust during most engagements. When at last the day came for us to leave to Suna we were just glad of the respite from training, it wasn't until I reached the gates of Konoha and stood waiting for Kakashi and Minato that it struck me that this would be the very first time I would be leaving Fire country. My entire life had been lived within its confines.

I didn't have very long to ruminate on it however for a tired sounding voice came from behind me, "You know I still want my rematch right?" I jumped and turning around found Shikaku Nara.

A little apprehensive I replied "I'd love to but I'm about to head to Suna for the Chunin exams."

His eyes seemed to glitter with something akin to amusement as he said "Oh I know..."

He didn't get to say anything more however as Minato flashed into existence a short distance away with a woozy looking Kakashi in tow.

"Ah Ko, good, you're here. Well it looks like we're ready to go. You lead the way Shikaku."

I looked up at horror at Shikaku and he seemed to read the question written in my eyes.

"Yes, I'm coming with you," He yawned, "Not for the Suna exams, I have a slightly more diplomatic business in Suna, it just happened to coincide with your departure so the Hokage chose to put us together for the trip."

He looked so innocent but I could tell there was no happenstance involved in his timing with whatever mission he had and his presence only promised untold grueling hours of Shogi to come.

I groaned internally as I hoisted my pack onto my back and made to follow them.

* * *

AN: A long time since my last update I know, stuff has just been super busy and this is kind of an in-between chapter so it has been harder to get through and I'm still not 100% happy with it. Hopefully the next one won't take as long. Please review, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you in the next one.


	20. Chapter 20

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

* * *

There was something freeing about leaping through the great cedars surrounding Konoha, we travelled in a formation with Minato in front, Shikaku in the middle and Kakashi and I flanking at the rear, with time spare and not much to do I decided to ask Kakashi about his training.

"My training?" he asked looking over to me, he seemed to ruminate for a moment before he looked ahead and said "It wasn't too bad. Orochimaru is very… demanding."

I waited for something more but Kakashi seemed to have finished, I began to open my mouth to ask him for some details but before I could he asked me about my training.

"I spent a great deal of time herding deer." I said, well he wasn't giving me much information - turnabout is fair play in my book.

Kakashi very nearly missed his next branch, "Herding deer!" he exclaimed, or at least as close to exclaiming as Kakashi came, subdued as he usually was.

I just nodded in response.

"You spent a month herding deer? What could you learn from that?"

"I never said I spent my whole month herding deer." I paused as Kakashi seemed to relax, "I spent most of the rest of my time playing Shogi." And he practically did a double take.

""Oi Shikaku, what have your clan been teaching Ko? I must be misunderstanding him." Kakashi called ahead.

"Shikaku looked back over his shoulder and with a smirk at me Kakashi couldn't see said "I seem to remember most of his time being used herding our deer, but we did play some shogi as well."

That crafty Shikaku, I don't know how but he must have read my handsigns all the way from where he was ahead of us, he wasn't letting anything spill to Kakashi either, Kakashi seemed to be about to erupt before abruptly he brought himself under control.

"if my father has taught me anything you can never judge a Nara by appearances" he signed to me, slowly I nodded in response, he seemed to have understood that there was some reason I trained the way I had even if it wasn't discernable on the surface.

The nod seemed to placate Kakashi and we spent the rest of the journey talking about the exams and what we might face. Honestly we had very little clue about what to expect according to Minato the exams themselves changed every time they were held and were ultimately up to the host village what they tested and how.

* * *

We took up camp that night in a copse of trees that were not as thickly built as the ones around Konoha, thinking about it the trees around Konoha seemed almost unnaturally large, I surmised that must have something to do with the first Hokage and his wood release, either he had chosen the site for the trees or the chakra from his wood release bore the trees around the village today.

I was tasked with getting the firewood whilst Kakashi found something to eat, Minato and Shikaku stayed behind to set up camp.

Getting the firewood it transpired was an easy task, it seemed like it hadn't rained in this region in quite some time, the ground had taken on the appearence of an almost powdery dirt on the surface with the soil beneath it being hard packed and unyielding, I quickly grabbed some kindling and them some larger pieces of wood, I did not know what Kakashi was going to find to eat in an area like this, there were unlikely to be rabbits building dens in soil this hard not to mention the lack of fauna for them to feed on.

When I returned to the campsite then it did not surprise me to see that kakashi was still out hunting, I took up the task of building a small pit for the fire as Shikaku and Minato finished setting up a permiter of light traps.

The fire practically lit itself and quickly took hold in the rest of the kindling I had gathered, the fire now properly established I sat back and layed out on the ground in front of it.

Not too long afterwards Shikaku and Minato returned and took up their own spots around the fire, I greeted each in turn.

"You're probably wondering how much of our training you can reveal to people outside the Nara clan." Shikaku began, it wasn't a question and him being him he had immediately seen through to exactly what had been on my mind several times since I left their home.

I nodded.

Shikaku yawned and stretched, "Tell them whatever you want." He finally said before laying back and staring at the rapidly darkening sky.

I had seem him take up this position often enough to know he was cloud watching, I stood up and walked over, I couldn't speak to him if he wasn't looking in my direction, it was the most annoying part of not being able to vocalise, if someone wasn't looking your way when you were speaking you weren't saying anything at all. Shikaku knew this and his looking at the clouds was definitely a way to deliberately avoid the conversation, why bring it up and then abruptly end it like that though? I wasn't going to let him.

"What do you mean tell them what I want?" I said from above him.

Shikaku rolled his eyes before mumbling something about me being annoying, "Exactly what I said, how would you describe what we taught you, how would you explain it to others?"

I grasped what he meant at that moment, I didn't actually know how I would describe what I had been taught, how do you communicate something that exists outside language?

Shikaku probably seeing my comprehension sighed and turnd over to look at the fire.

"So..." Minato began, he had been checking over his equipment whilst Shikaku and I talked, "What did they teach you beyond tactics and strategy, i've heard the Nara have beeen pretty impressed overall with what you've learnt and it takes a lot to impress a Nara."

"They helped me think better." I said.

Minato lifted an eyebrow sceptically, "They helped you think better? Come on I'm your sensei you can tell me."

"No really I have a whole new way of thinking and can think really well now."

Minato's expression didn't change and mentally I cursed Shikaku, he was right.

"Alright then keep your secrets." Minato huffed, "But expect extra training if you don't come back a chuunin." He said finishing with a grin that promised great pain.

I groaned internally and fell backwards onto the ground kicking up a clode of dust.

"Yo, I caught some birds but there wasn't much else to trap." Kakashi announced nonchalantly entering the clearing, he took a moment seeing my resigned position and Minato happily polishing his kunai, "What did I miss?"

"Please don't ask." I said.

* * *

That first night outside the bounaries of the village was uneventful, Minato took first shift followed by Kakashi and then finally myself, Shikaku wasn't nominated any of the watches and when Kakashi Pointed that out Shikaku simply stated it would be too much of a hassle.

I laid in the branches of a tree watching the sky give birth to a new day, I ascended to the highest branches of the tallest tree when it became clear enough to see into the distance. The difference was remarkable, behind us lay rolling hills of trees growing greener and wilder as the distance increased. Ahead though lay a gradual thinning of trees until a line of yellow cut a sharp contrast to the blue sky it hung below. I knew Suns was located in the middle of a desert but the way the landscapes simply melted into each other it seemed like we were stepping into another world.

Minato was the first to wake but I sensed Kakashi was also awake shortly after judging by how his chakra felt. Shikaku's chakra lay muted as it always was, where many people's chakra boiled or snapped or surged Shikaku's chakra always felt like a felt blanket laying over the area he inhabited.

We were away in short order, I had already packed after waking for my watch and the only thing that delayed us were the scant seconds Minato took dismantling the traps they had set up the previous evening.

"We'll be arriving in the Suna desert before the end of the day," Minato explained as well hopped through the trees, "After that we'll make slower progress so it should take us around 2 more days before we make it to Suna."

Kakashi and I both acknowledged this with a nod.

* * *

Minato's estimate was proven correct, by the time it had reached mid afternoon we had left behind the last traces of green fauna. We had long since descended from the trees, once they became more infrequent than every ten metres it became far easier to run through them than jump between them.

We took some time to change before we reached the desert proper. We changed into much lighter and brighter colored clothes with coverings for our heads. Shikaku, in one of his few breaks from the silence be had kept on this journey, informed us that exposed skin in the desert can burn within minutes, Minato seemed to take an extra precaution in rubbing some kind of cream over his face, according to him he burned quite easily so he had to use extra protection.

Running across the desert was tiring, at least at first. Minato and Shikaku adopted a technique similar to water walking where they spread their chakra over the area beneath their feet preventing the sand from collapsing into itself with every step, It took a few hours for Kakashi and I to notice during which we found ourselves getting progressively more tired due to the extra effort we were putting into running across the sand. Luckily the technique was simple enough for us to have it down within 15 minutes, I privately planned some kind of retribution for Minato and Shikaku in the future and judging by Kakashi's expression he was thinking the same, it wasn't lost on us when Shikaku shared a rare mischievous grin with Minato when we first started to try to reverse engineer the technique they were using.

When the sun began to set it got noticeably cooler though our running kept us warm enough by the time nighttime was upon us I could see tendrils of condensation rising from my every breath. Eventually Minato called us to a stop.

"There's little to burn or trap out here so you'll have to content yourself with the warmth of your blanket and the rations you brought with you." Minato announced.

Kakashi and I grimaced at each other but suddenly I had an idea. I gestured for Kakashi's attention before pointing at one of the ration bars in my hand, it contained dried apricots which I had chosen for their added sweetness but it was well known to those that knew Minato well that he detested apricots. I offered the bar to Kakashi with raised eyebrows, Minato would be distracted for a short time unpacking his bedding but I would not be fast enough to elude detection.

With a grin Kakashi took the ration bar and stood up murmuring an excuse about needing the toilet and he left the small campsite. The darkness of night being what it was he was gone from discernable site within moments.

* * *

Kakashi returned around 5 minutes later, minus one ration bar. I furtively took note of this from my side of the camp and kept my eye on Minato who was now settling down on his unpacked trappings.

We sat there for some time, Shikaku staring off into the night and Minato asking us questions about what we expected from the exams. Eventually though Minato reached for his pack and withdrew a ration bar.

Kakashi and I could only hope that the one he had picked was the one we planted as it was too dark to confirm which bar he had grabbed, he would have a few of these rations among his possessions so in truth it was unlikely to be the one he had grabbed, all the same though I'm not sure how Kakashi felt but I was sat with bated breath as Minato, so slowly it seemed, removed the packaging from around the snack and then bit into it.

I dared not breath.

Minato crunched twice more into the bite he had taken, I began to think he must have chosen a safe ration bar. He seemed to roll the contents of his mouth around for a moment speculatively before daring to take another tentative chew and I knew the same instant Minato realised for even across the camp in the limited light his face took upon such a hue it appeared as if a second dimmer moon stood against the dark.

The sound of Shikaku sniggering broke the silence, he must have known all along, then Minato was up gagging and running out into the sand beyond our sight. Kakashi and I had to content ourselves with the sound of retching and then water being gargled and expelled.

Minato returned to the site minutes later looking a little greener and in no fettle for conversation, he sent an accusatory stare in my direction before ordering us to sleep saying he would take first watch.

We both hurried to obey, Minato did not look too impressed with our revenge.

* * *

I was woken by Kakashi for the last watch, with no vantage point to survey the area around us I settled on the top of a nearby dune overlooking the camp and watched as the sun rose. I do not think I would ever willingly choose to live in a place as desolate as the desert but watching as the sun rose and ignited the ruddy orange sand of the desert, bringing it to life, I could not deny that it was a truly majestic landscape.

With first light everyone woke up and made quick work of dismantling the camp, it was easier travelling during the mornings and evenings I would learn. When the sun reached its climax in the sky later that day we stopped at a well Shikaku guided us to. I would not have seen it against the desert, it was little more than a small mound of clay baked dry around a hole in the ground. I was beginning to wonder what we would do for water, true we could survive for now with just rations but without water which we were rapidly running dry on we probably wouldn't survive more than a few days.

Minato brought a bucket and rope out from a seal and assigned Kakashi the job of drawing the water whilst he took watch.

"Some of the smaller settlements in Wind country do not take kindly to strangers using their wells." Shikaku explained quietly to me, "They guard the locations of their wells jealousy, it is only due to luck that I discovered this one on a previous trip."

"There's a settlement near here?" I asked, shading my eyes against the sun, straining to see any signs of nearby civilisation.

"They're nomadic but yes, they never stray too far from their precious wells, and for good reason, out here without water you face one of the worst deaths imaginable." he explained tiredly, "And no clouds to boot."

I chuckled a little at that last remark, of course he'd care about there not being any clouds.

* * *

Some time later we left that small oasis with enough water, Minato advised, to make it all the way to Suna if we rationed it properly. The rest of our journey passed without incident, discounting an incident the next morning when Kakashi found a scorpion in his bag, I thought maybe Minato placed it there in revenge but he wouldn't go that far would he?

We arrived at Suna later that same day, it exposed itself at first as a distant rocky outcropping against the azure sky and as we got closer I began to realise it was much bigger than I had initially anticipated, with no frame of reference for size the rock we were heading towards grew and grew until when we arrived it towered above us. Minato and Shikaku guided us to a small fissure in the wall of rock that it transpired was the way into the village. We were stopped here by a pair of Suna ninja who observed us suspiciously.

"For what purpose have you come to Suna," The more severe looking guard demanded.

"We have come for the Suna exams," Minato explained.

"And him?" He gestured towards Shikaku with his chin.

"I am here to speak to your Kazekage, he is expecting me." Shikaku practically yawned as he handed the guard a scroll with an official looking seal on it.

The guard broke the seal and examined it for a moment before grudgingly nodding.

"You three," He said indicating Kakashi, Minato and myself and passing Minato a scroll, "Will stay at the inn indicated on this map, curfew is at 7pm. Do not cause trouble." He turned to look at Shikaku, "Sagan will show you the way to the Kazekage." so saying the other guard stepped forward ready to lead Shikaku.

Shikaku glanced at Sagan before suppressing another yawn, "Well lead on I suppose."

Minato placed his hands on both mine and Kakashi's shoulders, "We'd better be making our way as well." he said as he guided us forward into the village.

* * *

The Inn we were using had apparently been commandeered for the use of all Konoha shinobi visiting for the exam, for some reason the powers that be thought putting shinobi of different villages into the same cramped living area was a bad idea.

Kakashi and I had a separate room to Minato, it was intended for 3 people since that was the usual size of a chunin exam team so with only myself and Kakashi inhabiting it there was room to spare. We had a single window cut into the dry stone that all the buildings in the village seemed to be made of, it did little to cool the room despite there being no glass or shutter, even the rare breeze that floated through did nothing to cool us.

I quickly set to work drawing a seal to air condition the room and placed a smaller barrier seal above the window preventing the cooler air from my air conditioning seal from escaping. Kakashi appreciated this immeasurably. He didn't say so but I could see how much he was sweating even beneath his light desert clothes.

"So," he began, laying onto one of the beds, "What do you think the first exam will be?"

I considered for a moment my now forgotten ink brush tucked behind an ear, a bad habit I had picked up from Kushina it frequently stained a goodly amount of my hair black, "Minato said that the first exam usually tested mental faculties right? So maybe it'll be an exam."

"An exam huh?" Kakashi looked back at the ceiling, "That would be pretty boring."

I didn't reply, I didn't disagree either, to have come all this way just to take a written exam would be pretty big waste of time in my opinion. All we could do though was wait. We had the morning to ourselves but were to report to the Kazekage's tower at 1PM the next day for the first part of the exam. I finished unpacking my things since the kurfew had already taken effect and we weren't allowed to wander the village, with us spending at least a few days here it made no sense to keep everything in my bag.

After I unpacked I lay on the bed, strangely now that I thought about it this was the first real bed I had used in this life. I turned over and tried to get some sleep.

* * *

I discovered that having an air conditioned room had a draw back the next morning when I stepped out to explore Suna and walked into what felt like a wall of heat. Even in the morning when the sun has barely risen it was hot in this village. I asked Kakashi If he wanted to explore the village with me but he wanted to make sure all of his equipment was prepared for the exam so he stayed behind.

Walking around the village I was surprised to see that almost none of the buildings were taller than 3 or 4 stories high, the only exception seemed to be some buildings built into the wall that ran the perimeter of the village and the Kazekage's tower. I suspected it might be due to the strength of the stone they used to build everything here.

I found breakfast for myself at a small stall, ramen wasn't the style here, likely due to the scarcity of the water, a food requiring broth was definitely a luxury. I bought a skewered lizard which was dry but surprisingly flavorful.

I was still wandering when Shikaku appeared next to me.

"If you've come for your rematch it's probably not the best time, the exams start in a few hours." I said.

Shikaku let out a small chuckle, "No I didn't come for that. You know you're still my student even if you can beat me at Shogi."

"You've come to teach me something then?" I asked, I was beginning to think Shikaku did nothing if there wasn't a reason behind it.

"Something like that. What do you think of this village?" He asked.

I shrugged, "Its hardly an economic hotbed but that's hardly surprising considering the location," I nodded towards the sun, "Out here the sun seems more like hurdle than a boon to life."

"So why do you think people live here?" Shikaku prodded.

"I… don't know." There had to be some reason, I felt no one would subject themselves to this climate and environment without reason.

"See if you can find a reason before we leave back to Konoha." Shikaku said before wandering off in his lazy ambling way. I sighed - he was giving me homework now!

* * *

The rest of my morning produced nothing of note, I spoke to a fair few merchants but no one that lived in Suna, according to one merchant I spoke to there were more merchants in Suna than he had ever seen, I surmised this was due to the upcoming chunin exams, with more people came more money and even the worst merchant knew to follow where the money flowed deepest.

I got back to the inn with plenty of time to spare but still found Kakashi and Minato waiting there for me outside.

"Minato thought it best to set off for the first exam early in case there are any ninja from other villages wanting to cause any trouble." Kakashi explained.

He had worded it quite diplomatically but I caught his intended meaning. There were villages that still harboured a deepset dislike of Konoha, I doubted they would actually cause any trouble inside of Suna but you couldn't be too careful, the scars of war ran deep and could easily reopen at events like these. I nodded and we started making our way to the Kazekage's tower

It wasn't too far but soon I noticed Minato wilting beneath the sun, he was still in his jonin attire which in the midday sun of Suna might as well have been the confines of an oven, Kakashi even looked a little put upon by the time we arrived at the tower despite his lighter clothes. Luckily I was dressed as lightly as I always was so I wasn't as affected by the sun's rays, my feet however were beginning to feel like they were being slowly cooked before we stepped inside and into the shade.

Minato turned us both around to face him and placed a hand on both our shoulders, "This is where I leave you, remember what I've taught you, show your quality as shinobi of Konoha."

It was a unusually serious speech from the ordinarily carefree Minato and even after his hand left my shoulder it felt like a weight had settled there. There didn't seem to be anything more to say so Minato nodded to both of us and we followed the small crowd of ninja from various villages down the hall and into a room that was quite bare with the only furnishings being the individuals being instructed to line up along the back wall, Kakashi and I quickly found ourselves arrayed alongside them where we waited.

I looked up and down the row to our left and right. The mix was predominantly Suna shinobi, unsurprising considering they were the host, some of the ninja present were on the cusp of adulthood, some looked to be new genin, none though looked as young as Kakashi and I. As I looked among them I noted that those that were looking around themselves rapidly found the position we took up on the lineup and I cursed inwardly, a team of 2 and we look younger than anyone here? We were going to be the first priority for any team with half a brain between them.

Before I had time to curse our situation further a female shinobi wearing long robes and a sand colored scarf entered. The reaction of the Suna shinobi was immediate as a hush fell over them, obviously this individual was no slouch.

"I am Karura and I will be leading this year's chunin exams." She paused here looking over the shinobi present, "Those of who are incapable of inflicting or withstanding torture should step out now. your withdrawal will not reflect negatively on your record and you may compete in the next chunin exams."

That got everyone murmuring, certainly torture was a part of life as a ninja everyone was aware of but I imagine no one really expected to be put through it in an exam of all things. My own experiences on my first mission outside the village and then the imprisonment at the hands of Danzo flashed through my head. I felt ill. Kakashi nudged me and I looked to his face which showed open concern, I had probably gone a little pale and Kakashi was not unaware of what I had gone through.

"Withdraw?" He signed.

The temptation was there. But we had not come all the way to Suna to give up at the first point of difficulty, I resolutely shook my head. Kakashi looked at me a few moments more, his eyes searching before he nodded and faced forward again.

I took another look around the room, surprisingly it was a team of older genin from kumo who were the only ones in the end to withdraw. I did spot another genin team from Konoha on my second look around though, they were actively trying to seem unimportant and at first glance your eyes skimmed right past them, they were obviously quite skilled in subterfuge, I only recognised two of the genin on the team however both had been members who had been part of our graduating class. Morino Ibiki who I had noted had always held a serious demeanor and Hayate Gekko who I knew was renowned for his budding kenjutsu skills.

"If that is all here are the parameters for the first part of this year's chunin exams. One among each of your team's is to be given a passcode, divulging this passcode will not automatically mean your failure in this exam but keeping the information may help you later." She paused and looked at us, her eyes as piercing as a blade, "I want to make this absolutely clear. You do not need to keep this information in order to pass." After another moment she nodded, "The individual with the passcode will be sent into a room with the remains of another genin team who will attempt to extract the information from you, those extracting the information are not to cause mortal injury or outright kill there subject, there will be proctors observing at all times and as soon as an interrogation reaches that point they will step in. We can not implement any direct punishment since you all in effect have diplomatic immunity for the duration of these exams. That said those of you that do break this rule will be disqualified from the Suna exam and will not be allowed to retake it in Suna or any village with which Suna is a formal ally."

I blinked. That would certainly be an effective dissuasion, Suna was already allied with Konoha after coming out of the last war and we were set to host the exams next and there was pretty open talk of Suna being in diplomatic talks with the village who would host after that. Anybody who broke this rule would be effectively barred from another bite at the Apple for at least 18 months.

"We will now be giving the passcode to those among you that will be that will be interrogated." I felt Kakashi shift at my side, he had stepped forward, face resolute, obviously volunteering himself. "To select those being interrogated you will each be given a box out of which you will withdraw a ball."

Even as she said this proctors came forward with small wooden boxes, Kakashi stepped back again, a frown now marring his brow.

"Those that randomly select the black ball from the box will be the interrogated. Those that select white the interrogators." Karura finished explaining.

Our proctor reached us and proffered our box. It was an interesting design, rather than a hole in the top there was 2 holes one on each side, looking at the other boxes I saw there were 3 holes for the other teams, it appeared our box had been prepared just for us.

Kakashi looked at me asking for confirmation again that I was ok with this. Honestly I wasn't sure. But I nodded back all the same and we reached into the box simultaneously and Kakashi withdrew his ball moments before me. I didn't need to look at mine, Kakashi's face spoke volumes. I put my arm on his shoulder my own ball left hanging at my side with my fist closed around it.

"Your objective in this exam is to extract the data from your captive, those who fail will be dismissed from the exam. Remember you are not to use lethal force and those of you who are to be interrogated are free to divulge your passcode without retribution. I will repeat for clarity, to pass the interrogators on your team need only complete their objective."

"Looks like the most important job is left to you." I said to Kakashi. He didn't reply, he was looking at his ball looking torn. I gave him a last tap on the shoulder as the proctor guided me away and towards the other unlucky few who drew the short straw.

We were stood far enough away that I doubted the other teams could hear what Karura was saying but she activated a crude looking privacy seal nonetheless, "On the outside of your ball you will find a number, that number will correspond to your interrogators team," I looked back at the other teams and found she was right, each team was stood below a number on the wall, "Inside of your ball you will find your passcode, you will have 3 seconds to memorize it after opening it before the paper combusts. Do that now."

I opened mine after noting the number 8 on my ball. My passcode was "Red", simple enough I thought, I flinched surprised as the paper combusted in my hand, 'I must be distracted if I'm forgetting details like that' I thought to myself.

After that we were quickly sent back to stand with our chosen interrogators, I had been placed with one of the few Kiri teams present. I chose to take their smiles as welcoming smiles and tried to ignore their vicious edges. I think these guys were looking forward to this. I saw Kakashi's victim was the one member of the other Konoha team I didn't know the name of though I learned it was Tokara when he attempted to introduce himself to Kakashi. Not a bad move, it would be all the harder to torture someone who treated you like another human being. Kakashi though completely ignored the statement and the proffered hand which Tokara eventually let fall to his side looking glum. I couldn't blame him for trying. I could tell from a distance such niceties would get me nowhere with my interrogators though.

After a few moments the same proctor that had carried the box for Kakashi and I came over to direct us to where we would be situated for what was to follow. I didn't let my mind stray too far in that direction. Apparently this proctor would be my escort for this first phase, I imagined the rest of the proctors were similarly matched up. He guided us out of the room down some stairs into what seemed like a subterranean area of the building and down a corridor with doors positioned at intervals along the sides, I saw teams ahead of us enter the earlier ones and all too soon we were being directed into our own cell, furnished with only a chair in the middle of the room.

"You will have 5 minutes to prepare followed by one hour in which you are to attempt to extract the information, you can choose to have your captive tied to the chair or left free." The proctor announced professionally as he closed the door.

One of the Kiri ninja grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the chair, "Tied to the chair of course," he said, his voice came out like a high pitched rasp, almost more breath that voice, "We wouldn't want our little Konoha nin squirming away."

The proctor nodded and provided the Kiri ninja with rope which they used to tie my legs to the chair and my arms behind my back. I had to admire their skill this was obviously not the first time they had tied somebody up, there was no slack in the rope and I noted that whilst it was a simple knot it was quite unbreakable from my position. The rope itself seemed to have been reinforced in some way for though I strained against it it did not fray or even loosen.

The two Kiri nin stepped back after a few moments with noises of contentment, obviously happy with their work, one of them began spinning a kunai idly in one hand as the proctor checked the time.

"You may begin in 5 seconds," he said at last

The two Kiri nin turned towards me and the one that hadn't dragged me to the chair spoke in a drawling tone, "Don't suppose you'd want to divulge the passcode now, save us the trouble? There's no repercussions after all other than letting us pass this phase."

It wasn't a bad option and one I had considered, still though if I was able to keep them out it would be less competition, I opened my mouth to let loose with some witty barb when I paused. I couldn't talk. Even if I wanted to talk my hands were literally tied.

The two Kiri nin took my hesitation to mean I needed more persuasion, "Well this wouldn't have been as much fun if you did."

I shrunk down into my chair as they advanced.

* * *

AN: Really wanted to finish the next chapter before posting this one but I have completely restarted that 3 times at this point so I think I'll post this one so there's at least some progress. Reviews are great (good or bad) so leave one if you have time. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I'll see you in the next one (eventually!).


	21. Chapter 21

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

* * *

Shikaku by his own admission did not want to be in Suna. Indeed he had felt so strongly about not travelling here that when asked to by Hiruzen he had almost told him he had felt so. Efforts in that direction would probably prove ultimately fruitless however and not to mention troublesome. It was not the Suna kage that vexed him, though that man could be a difficulty on his own, but the climate out here was unavoidably hostile. Even now having merely travelled a small distance from his accommodation to the kage tower he felt wilted like fauna under too much heat. Perhaps, Shikaku mused, that might be why the people who lived in this place were so prickly to talk to, instead of some kind of flower they must have the countenance of a cactus to thrive here.

Though that attitude was not shared by all he thought as he approached the desk before the Suna Kage's office.

"Hey, I'm Shikaku, I have an appointment." He announced to the woman behind the desk.

The woman in question was a mystery to Shikaku, seemingly in perpetual motion she exuded an aura of constant anxiety, even her left eye followed an oscillation all of its own. When she raised her head to see who had spoken it span off somewhere towards the window even as the other creased, whether in recognition or suspicion Shikaku couldn't say. It was entirely possible that the puppet master wielding their creation from beneath the desk was unsure of the expression she was supposed to be giving, in fact shikaku thought he would be surprised if he had intended for her expression to change at all, it seemed quite an accomplishment that they had managed to get it sitting in a chair.

It was a strange practice among shinobi in suna that they should choose to interact with others through their puppets in lieu of doing as everyone else did. He imagined that perhaps it was to surprise enemies when they finally came to fight them. Shikaku doubted this trick worked anymore as all of the suna puppet users seemed to do this as if it was a de rigueur element of being a user of puppets and the natural response of shinobi in the elemental nations at this point was to combat them with this in mind.

The puppet master must have recognised Shikaku for the next moment it wordlessly gestured him forward, Shikaku inclined his head in thanks and made his way past the desk, accidentally knocking a book from it on his way past. He tried to pretend he didn't hear the muffled exclamation of pain as it hit its mark. He tried quite hard in fact. A soft smile made its way to his face all the same.

The office of the Kazekage had the appearance as if every book, scroll and paper had been placed to the side, as if put aside temporarily to be dealt with later. Even the desk found itself at an awkward slant protruding from one wall. Shikaku took all this in peripherally and noted too that though all the documents looked discarded they still possessed signs of having been dealt with, a stamp there, some notes in the margins there.

The Kazekage was stood before one of the windows, Rasa had not changed since last Shikaku had seen him, a face of slate it held a serious slant in every line etched into it. Little else though was ever given a way. A diligent man by all accounts Rasa cared deeply for his people. Shikaku was not sent because of this man's values though but because of his intellect. Shikaku suspected it was his almost religious devotion to the denizens of his village that allowed his mind to run to such fringe thought processes and with such speed and alacrity. Rasa rarely made mistakes but he was sometimes known not to make the right decision as well. It is an important distinction. In the last war he had chosen to withdraw a team of 20 shinobi to ensure that there were no unnecessary casualties among his force in the defence of his country but doing so he abandoned a small village neutral to the war. The village does not exist anymore but Suna was one of the few villages not to give ground in the last war and they had the lowest number of casualties.

"Shikaku." Rasa acknowledged. He did not continue for several moments. Shikaku knew he had been sent as a negotiator in his leaders stead, there was something the Hokage needed, he could already sense the next war coming, there was too much ill will from the last one which pooled around like some macabre fuel, Shikaku himself knew it could only be one diplomatic faux pas from igniting. The Hokage had thus been in talks with the village's closest allies to shore up old pacts, Rasa as the closest ally after the unfortunate destruction of the Whirlpool village was top of the list. Friendships of this kind were a two way street however and there was some boon that Rasa wanted before he committed his forces any further in a pact with Konoha. Shikaku waited out Rasa's silence, he knew that many times a silence could ask a question you didn't know to ask.

"I need a seal master," There it is, the key to this lock, Shikaku's thoughts raced out in a hundred directions his mood souring as he arrived at the most probable reasons for this request, "The village needs a defender, someone that can be used as the anvil to meet the hammer at war time. Yes I can see it coming. Too quick perhaps for this plan to bare fruit but maybe for the one after, who knows. I lack however the tools to create the anvil I need."

An anvil? Shikaku thought to himself, It was an odd way of describing what he sought to create. He knew now what Rasa desired - a Jinchuriki. There were few sealmasters even in Konoha that could craft such a seal, let alone an improvement over the one Suna had used in the past, crude as it was, the methods to seal a tailed beast were closely guarded secrets.

Shikaku sighed inwardly, in the end he had come here for nothing, the only sealmasters in Konoha that could perform this task were unavailable, Kushina could not leave the village because it was too much of a security risk and no one but perhaps the Hokage knew where Jiraiya was at the moment and he wasn't expected back for months. Shikaku was about to relay the disappointment to Rasa when he suddenly remembered there had been another seal master join Konoha. And it just so happened he was in Suna for the exams. Shikaku didn't let his elation at finding a solution show on his face. It would be most important for now to find out what Rasa could offer the Leaf village in return. Instead Shikaku took a hand out of his pocket and scratched the back of his neck whilst looking somewhere into the middle distance over Rasa's forehead.

There were a few moments of silence that seemed to stretch on before Rasa finally broke it, "We can offer the support of some of our chunin defending your border during wartime." Rasa stated. An opening offer, and better than Shikaku had hoped, the Hokage had spoken of hoping to keep trade lines open during wartime. Rasa must truly be desperate for this seal.

"I can get you a seal master but finding one that knows anything regarding the sealing of Biju might be difficult." It wasn't quite the truth but it wasn't common knowledge that Ko was one of our foremost seal masters - who would expect it in such a young kid - not to mention one of only three in our entire village that had an in depth education on the sealing of tailed beasts.

Shikaku thought that perhaps Rasa had nodded, it was an infinitesimal inclination of the head, it might have been his imagination and then Rasa moved to a chair behind his desk and gestured Shikaku into the other one.

"I have 2 hours before my next appointment." Rasa said as he sat down.

Shikaku understood. They had 2 hours to hammer this agreement out, he fell into his chair and into the negotiation.

* * *

To say their bark was worse than their bite would be an understatement, after trying some rudimentary genjutsu even I could easily dispatch the two Kiri nin had abdicated to the back of the room for a time speaking in hushed tones I could hear snippets of from my place a few metres away.

"No I don't know anymore genjutsu… Zaku always used to take of this sort of thing... should we try it again?... I don't know!... Maybe we could try..."

Throughout this exchange I remained stuck in my chair, I looked to the proctor who still stood by the door and rolled my eyes, he grimaced back in much the same way I might to someone to whom I was delivering bad news.

Eventually my tormentors seemed to come to some agreement and came back into view looking a little flustered.

"Alright Konoha scum, we're going to start ripping out your fingernails until you give us the code." The seeming leader of the two announced.

I audibly sighed. That was what they had come up with? I had seen more inventiveness from small children, ranked against the other times I had been tortured this ranked a distant third and only then by default.

The sigh did not go down well among the kiri nin who took umbrage to my nonchalance and quickly set to work.

* * *

It must be coming up to an hour soon. I looked to the proctor in askance and he took the gist of my expression as he looked at his watch and then held up 5 fingers. 5 minutes. 5 Minutes more of this idiocy.

"What kind of ninja are you?", the quieter one had started to ask such questions in the last few minutes, they had moved on to, one by one, breaking my fingers. Painful certainly but not outside my experience and after around a minute the affected areas became oddly numb anyway with only the odd feeling of my digits protruding from unusual angles remaining, "We've ripped your nails out, broke all of your fingers and you haven't even uttered a sound of discomfort." She looked almost fearfully perplexed. I was just happy that these shinobi were at least competent enough to make the breaks clean making them fixable in minutes by even a novice medic like Kakashi.

I rose an eyebrow in response, I shouldn't be the one intimidating her in this situation. These might be the sorriest excuses for shinobi I had ever come across. Both of them stared at me thinking of where to go from here for a few moments before the proctor discreetly coughed from the back of the room.

"That, I am afraid is time." He approached my chair and knelt behind me quickly undoing my bindings, I brought my hands in front of me and winced. No doubt they would be easily fixed but they were un extremely unpleasant sight, the two kiri nin stepped back their faces whitening as one of them uttered almost under their breath "Zaku is going to kill us for not getting the code."

"Don't move your hands please," my attention was brought back to the proctor who took my hands in his and enveloped them in the green glow of medical chakra. It was a curious and not particularly enjoyable experience to feel my fingers pop and then lock through various configurations before finally resting back as they were before the kiri nin had begun work on them, even my fingernails had been returned. I nodded my thanks to the proctor who returned the nod and I turned to my ex-torturers.

"For future reference you might want to check if your captive is capable of talking before you tie up their hands." I signed with derision.

The female nin facepalmed with an admirable amount of force even as the one I had identified as the unofficial leader muttered "No way."

"If you follow the hallway the way we came you will find your sensei, your teammate will meet you there." The proctor explained to them as he stood up before he turned to me, "You will follow me through this door." he continued indicating a second door on the other side of the room.

* * *

The amount of teams didn't seem much diminished after the first task with only perhaps 2 other teams out of the ones that entered missing. Kakashi joined me in the large room the proctor had guided me to running an extremely critical eye over me for injuries, I smiled back to reassure him. The room itself seemed to be at least partially underground, no windows were present and the rock here felt almost cool against my bare feet. A large door on one side of the room was the only feature other than the small one we had milled in from.

When we had taken our place among the other teams I took some time to look at how the other teams had made it through. None of them seemed particularly injured, some sported somewhat superficial souvenirs of their trials, some singed hair, spots of blood on their clothes, I spotted Kakashi's partner pretty quickly and mentally winced, he didn't look injured but his hair was extremely frazzled and his face twitched slightly every few moments, it looked like Kakashi had charged him with static electricity until his body could take no more, I raised an eyebrow at Kakashi and he stared mischievously back.

We didn't have long to wait, Karura entered the room before I had a chance to look over the other teams in detail, entering from the larger door the room behind her seemed to be a small anteroom with another door within sight, "congratulations on completing this first task, you will now be sent into the next room one team at a time to enter both parts of your code, those gained by the interrogators and those kept by the interrogated, after entering your code the next door will open and you will receive a scroll."

From there she gestured for the team on the far left to enter the ante room and after they did the door closed behind them. A few moments later the door opened again with the team nowhere in sight, I frowned, it all seemed a little dramatic to be handing out the scrolls this way, why not confirm our Passcodes and then give us a scroll?

A few minutes passed and around 15 teams has passed in front of us before Kakashi and I were sent forward, we entered the ante room and the door ground closed behind us.

"What was your code?" Kakashi asked

"Red." I replied

"Perhaps you are meant to go on that side then." He said indicating the right side of the door where a selection of colored beads lay in a bowl with an ornate looking pedestal stood next to it.

I nodded and looked at Kakashi's side, it was an abacus so…

He nodded confirming what I was thinking. "I got a number." That confirmed that whilst the the decision of who would be the interrogated had been random the number given was very specific so that every team had the capability of getting both parts of the code. The must have been setting it up right until we had all taken our places in the first room.

After entering our respective codes there was a muffled clack like a giant lock being opened and the door grumbled open in front of us, we walked through and found to our surprise that there were only another 2 teams present out of the 15 that had gone ahead of us, one of them Suna and the other from Kumo.

I looked around in a confusion Kakashi shared, "Secondary objective?" He signed to me. It was possible and I couldn't see much reason other than that for them splitting up the teams that had come out of the first exam, but what could it be? We were only given two codes so there wasn't much else I could think of that might separate us, my brain thought back to the instructions we were given for the first exam when it suddenly struck me, it didn't matter for me since I never got the chance to speak to my tormentors but - Ah!

I pulled on Kakashi's sleeve to get his attention but before I could explain to him Karura entered again with a final team, it was the other Konoha team.

"As you might have realised by now the first exam wasn't just about obtaining information, its other aim was teaching the value of making sure the information was correct, in the life of a Shinobi the only thing worse than no information at all is wrong information." Karura began, confirming my suspicion, "Those of you that were tortured were allowed to give any code you wanted, those of you on the other side of the table had the job of making sure that information was correct"

I looked at Kakashi, had he suspected that he might be given an incorrect code all along even from a shinobi from our own village? It would explain the still crackling member of the other konoha team, he sensed my gaze and confirmed with a deft sign simply saying "Trust, but confirm."

"Those that failed to get the correct code were dropped into a subterranean network of caves that opens outside the village, for them the second exam has already begun, their task will be to get out of the cave, which has its own challenges, and once out to track you down and obtain one of these" Here she held up a scroll with a wax seal holding it closed, "Each of you will be given one of these scrolls and will be required to deliver them to the village from the location we will take you to in the desert within 24 hours, as long as the scroll makes it in that time your entire team will pass regardless of whether they make it within the time limit."

I mentally took it in, it seemed a convoluted idea but I could see the reasoning behind it, now that we had obtained our information we had to safely deliver it.

"You will now be blindfolded and carried to where you will start the first exam." Even as she said said this my proctor from the first part of the exam appeared, as if from nowhere, and handed us both bags to place over our head, once done I was picked up and carried at a speed that just seemed to accelerate further and further until, even through the bag all I could hear was wind, it felt like this lasted forever but was probably closer to an hour later when my handler stopped, placed me down and removed my bag.

"You have 24 hours to make it back to the village, here is your scroll," He gave the scroll to me but I passed it to Kakashi who deftly slipped it into one of his pockets, "Good luck" he finished and disintegrated into sand. Well there goes my plan to follow him back to the village. I looked at Kakashi who was already observing the sun, I had never been particularly skilled at navigating without a map, after a few moments he pointed in a direction that seemed much the same as any other in this landscape and we set off.

* * *

We quickly realised why the time limit was as low as 24 hours. If we hadn't made it back to the village by then we were unlikely to. Without water, out here and moving at the pace we had set, we'd be lucky to survive 48 hours. We occasionally stopped so Kakashi could correct our course, strangely we were apparently veering very slightly to the right the further we ran, Kakashi suspected that without a point to navigate from we might be walking in circles.

The afternoon passed and we found ourselves cursing the cold rather than the heat. Suna still hadn't appeared in view but once the stars were out Kakashi was, If anything, more sure that we were going in the right direction. We made the decision to run through the night early on, it would be hard enough to sleep in the cold without a blanket but also we could not be sure we wouldn't freeze to death in the night.

We remained vigilant at all times, there was no moon this night so we ran with only the pin prick constellation of lights above us which did little to illuminate our surroundings let alone give us hope of seeing the village at range, we likely would not know we were there until we were on top of it.

With every step we took though we were aware we were heading further and further into danger. Somewhere in the desert ahead there were maybe as many as 10 teams watching for us, laying traps.

The night stretched on and Kakashi started to show the first signs of the anxiousness I felt, seen in scant black reliefs against a darker background the silhouette of his face showed a clenched jaw, and perhaps the beginning of a frown. The biggest giveaway though was the brief charges of static electricity that raced between his fingers, shockingly blue against the pitch of night.

Being on edge against attack for too long is almost as bad as being caught unawares. Eventually it drained you, especially when you were operating exhausted, deprived of sleep. It was somewhere around 3 in the morning when we were finally attacked.

We were not prepared.

* * *

At first I thought I had slipped on the cusp of a dune, the sand slipped downwards and away immediately in front of me so it seemed the most likely explanation but only for a moment. My leg slipping beneath the sand was my first warning something was wrong, the adapted tree walking exercise was no longer working, closer inspection would reveal that it was because the sand was already charged with a great deal of chakra. I let out a brief exhale of air that would have been a shout of surprise, Kakashi seemed to realise the danger for I felt his chakra hit the sand like small concussions and plumes of sand flew up and fell in his wake as he approached, his electrified chakra superheating the sand to a platform of glass where he stepped.

He tried to wrench me out of the sand by my arms but I was already up to my waist in the stuff and it held fast, slowly sucking me deeper.

I whispered a curse, which seemed to shock Kakashi, His shock grew into confusion as I pushed him away, "They're after the scroll," I whispered, "We can't be far from the village, go."

"I'm not about to leave you." Kakashi replied redoubling his efforts.

I understood how he felt but the scroll was more important, as long as he made it we'd both be through. We were running out of time, the sand was up to my chest now, I ripped my arms away from him to push him bodily away. "Go." I ordered, communicating with a violent slash through the air.

I didn't see whether he listened, I sank too quickly and then it went dark.

* * *

"Your teammate will be exposed to the sun without respite, by the time the end of the exam comes he will be irrevocably scarred. All you need do is give us your scroll and he can go."

I awoke to a girl shouting in a not unusual situation for me, happily they only seemed to have bound my hands. Not so happily there were chakra suppressing seals applied on the chains. It was the shouting that had woken me up, I opened my eyes to find my environment awash in orange. There were lots of torches surrounding me on the walls of the cave with brackets installed to hold them. This was not an improvised holding area, this had been used often in the past.

I looked ahead to where the person shouting was. They were stood on an outcrop of rock with a small shelf of smooth rock hanging overhead, it seemed like an unusual cave, it had an almost artificial feel. Ahead of the girl at the front I could see only stars so the cave must be protruding from the ground at a slight angle. My foot slipped against the smooth stone and I grunted as my weight was placed on my wrists before regaining my balance on my toes. My convalescence did not go unnoticed though, against the night I saw sparks fly in the distance, perhaps on the cusp of a dune that rose high enough to come into view. They were intermittent and probably too small to see unless you were looking for them. It took me a moment to realise they were Morse code, something all of us were taught in the academy.

"six"

It was a question, from his point of view he could probably see 5 and had assumed there would be another to make up 2 complete teams. He couldn't see the ones in the shadowed corners though. Or the one I could sense keeping watch from the top of the shelf of rock. His chakra told me he was asleep though. I held up 9 fingers.

Against one team I would have liked our chances, against two maybe we could have escaped when things got too rough but three was insurmountable. Still as more small sparks glinted in the distance I read the message Kakashi had sent with hopeful optimism.

"Rescue"

I crossed my hand in front of each other in response.

"Escape"

I shrugged. It was possible, alone and if they let down their guard. I was still working on the specifics though. I read his final message come back to me in halting morse.

"I'll deliver the scroll. But I'll be back."

I nodded my head and that seemed to draw the attention of my closest captor.

"Don't get any ideas. We used to hold prisoners here, before interrogation was moved inside the village. There's no chance of escape." he said confidently.

I looked at him and noted that like the girl at the front of the cave he too was wearing a Suna headband. It was likely that this was a coalition of Suna shinobi who had failed the true objective of the first exam. I shrugged with raised eyebrows in response and he seemed to lose interest after a few moments.

* * *

In the next few hours nothing really changed. The girl at the front of the cave continued to shout for all that would hear her that I would be burnt to a crisp come midday. The others seemed to grow increasingly weary of her shouts though and some of them even took up spots dozing against the back wall. My closest captor had not moved though, he stayed resolutely at my side, eventually I had made efforts to talk to him. It was pretty much a one way conversation however.

As the first tinges of a lighter blue reached the sky the girl at the mouth of the cave threw up her hands and walked back towards me, "If your friend has any sense he'll be here before the sun is up, come on Kazu, we need to find a scroll from another team if his teammate won't show up."

The one closest to me, now identified as Kazu looked wearily about and the girl recognised his misgivings, "There's still 7 of us here, if his teammate comes they can take care of it."

Eventually Kazu nodded and, after collecting some equipment, they leaped out into the early twilight and I waited. They assumed that the shinobi posted above the cave was still awake but he wasn't. And almost everyone else was already dozing. A glance at the torches told me they'd last maybe 30 minutes more before they sputtered out, likely attracting the attention of my captors who would wake up to illuminate the cave again. They would after all want to be able to see. So I had 30 minutes to come up with a plan. I moved my hands into the now familiar seal I had first utilised at the Nara clan and began to speculate on my situation.

* * *

20 minutes later and the horizon was beginning to glow a brilliant crimson and I had figured out an escape. I began by gradually placing my full weight on my wrists and hauling my feet towards the ceiling, everyone in the cave, if not asleep, was at least lightly dozing. When I had my fee on the ceiling I anchored my feet there and began to pull. The chain had not merely been installed onto the sandstone but by some mechanism had been placed within the stone and the sandstone been placed around it. I placed more strain on my chain and the ceiling made a deep cracking noise, it was too loud, I lessened my strain and continued to pull.

Fifteen minutes passed and finally one of the torches was beginning to splutter, not leaving me with much time. Sweat was dripping up my body down onto the floor but there was now a fissure approximately 30 centimetres across that was gradually stretching open, another thin fracture had opened up around my chain, I took the time to make sure my feet were not attached to the stone within the circle.

Almost tent minutes later and the light of the sun had begun stretching its way down the cave, almost reaching my toes. It was then that my chain finally broke free. The chain came free with little noise luckily but I has to be quick to catch the large pieces of rock that tried to drop behind it. The clinking of my chain was gratingly loud to me but none of my captors stirred though I could feel the one sleeping above the cave beginning to wake up in the sun. Not much time left. My manacles were were easily dealt with, they had rusted on one side so applying some leverage they quickly gave way.

It was strange the things you saw but never really registered. In the Nara state they were as obvious as the nose in front of your face, walking forwards on the ceiling, I approached a row of deep circular holes in the ceiling, presumably intended to hold the same chains that held me at one time they had been left empty for so long an infinitesimally slight hairline crack had appeared between them. From the weight of the overhanging roof. I sent a rush of chakra to my muscles and brought my fists down on the ceiling. Even with all my training i felt my hands jarr uncomfortably against the rock. The sound was loud enough to rouse the lightest sleepers below me and I worried for a moment if I might have to make a second attempt until a deep crack grumbled in the depths of the rock and the fracture widened to a chasm, I stepped back even as there were shouts from below.

An entire shelf of rock fell into the cave rocking the ground titanically with its weight, dust from where it fell shot with a great woosh to the back of the cave temporarily blinding my captors. Sand began trickling in from above the rock, there was almost a meter of clearance between the top of the fallen shelf and the ceiling through which the sand was falling but between the grains I could see the sun glinting. I shot through the gap as the fallen shelf began a grinding slide down towards the back of the cave and the Suna ninja.

* * *

It was a few minutes later as I hugged the cusp of an overlooking dune that I was ambushed. In hindsight I shouldn't have stuck around to make sure all the Suna shinobi got out, it was when one of them melted into sand that I realised something was wrong. It was the ninja who was sleeping above the cave. To have gotten so close to me without me sensing him he must have been very adept. Luckily I had been training my senses since the first time I had been caught unawares by a ninja capable of hiding his chakra and I leaped sidewards with moments to spare as his knee crashed down where my back had been.

"You should have stayed put." He said getting up

I smiled, "I've never been one to stay pinned down for too long."

He was a few years older than the other Suna shinobi and he wore fabric over his head to protect him from the sun which also hid one side of his face. Judging by the dent he put into the dune he wasn't weak. I took all this in within moments readying myself for battle before a shout interrupted us.

"Stop!"

It was the girl from earlier. And she was holding a kunai to a ragged looking Kakashi's neck whilst Kazu held him in place from behind.

"Give us the scroll." She demanded

I raised my hands, "Let's calm down. I don't have the scroll."

"So you can't talk? I wondered why you responded with sign language" The older one grumbled stepping closer. "These two haven't learned that yet." He explained.

"Shut up Baki," the girl practically shrieked, "What did he say?"

"He says he doesn't have the scroll."

"Bullshit, this guy says it's in a storage seal on his arm." the girl exclaimed shoving the kunai further towards Kakashi's throat.

I offered Baki my arm which he tentatively took and examined, "This… isn't a storage seal."

In that moment many things happened at once. There was a noise of strangled pain and high pitched crackling as Kakashi's captors fell over electrocuted unconscious, the girls electrocution coming courtesy of the kunai she had held too close to Kakashi's neck. I redoubled my grip on Baki's hand as he tried to pull away. I grunted in surprise but kept my grip. This guy was strong. Baki appeared surprised himself that he hadn't pulled away.

With his arm in mine I began to swing him in circles, quickly building enough speed to toss him towards the other Suna ninja at the collapsed cave.

I turned to Kakashi who was collapsed on one knee, his injured leg sported a wound that didn't look large but must have gone into the muscle to make standing so difficult, I picked him up.

"Where is the scroll?" I whispered

He reached up and plucked the scroll out of his gravity defying hair, "They never search my hair" he said grinning through his ripped masked.

I laughed silently, "What happened to delivering the scroll?"

"Would you have left me behind?" He almost sounded offended. I suppose he was right. We had no more time to talk however and Kakashi promptly pointed in a direction, "It's not far."

I rose an eyebrow in response, I couldn't see any hint of the village just more sand but I began running all the same with the Suna ninja not far behind.

When I reached the top of the next dune I saw what he meant. We were literally right on top of it, from here the sand rapidly fell away like a cliff but from where I stood I could very nearly see over the walls of Suna. We were on the wrong side though, the valley that was the only gap in the wall was on the other side of suna, we'd never make it on foot with me carrying Kakashi. I had an idea.

"What are you doing?" Kakashi asked, I had taken a few strides back.

"Getting a run up." I whispered back

Kakashi paled, "could you speak up I thought I just heard you say - wait!" He finished with a shouted exclamation as I started sprinting towards the edge, powering my legs with as much chakra as they could hold on the very edge I propelled myself at the wall and I realised almost instantly we weren't going to make the top.

I'd have told Kakashi to hold on if he could have heard me over the wind, he seemed to being doing a good job of that anyway. When we hit the wall about three quarters of the way up I began trying to stick to the wall with my feet, we slid around 10 metres before it took hold though.

"Can you climb?" I asked

Kakashi, looking oddly dazed, nodded and reached out his hand to get a handhold. He got a hold and set off ahead of me, climbing with only his hands his legs hanging beneath him, I made to follow when I was slashed from behind, I let out a silent shout as I felt blood, warm even in the heat of the desert, drip down my back. I looked behind myself but couldn't see who had slashed me. Only our pursuers now at the bottom of the dune and running toward the wall.

An almost imperceptible warping of the air was my only warning, truth be told if I hadn't seen it enough in training it would have hit me, instead I leapt back as the blade of wind cut into the rock beneath me. I narrowed my eyes, it was the guy they called Baki, firing them from the ground.

I took up position next to Kakashi who looked over wearily, "I don't suppose you could pick up the pace?" I asked half jokingly, he had probably been up all night and he was injured. He looked looked down just as another blade of wind carved itself into the rock, he looked back up and nodded resolutely.

* * *

We eventually made or way to the top of the wall, Kakashi climbing ahead and myself fighting fire with fire, or I guess air with air in this case. Every blade of air that came close was swiftly dispatched with a whip of my shaggy hair imbued with wind chakra, finally on top of the wall we sat down to take brief rest during which Kakashi started applying medical ninjutsu to his leg.

"What business do you have here Konoha Ninja?" A voice called out from behind me.

I turned to find a Suna ninja, likely making a patrol, "we're on the exam, we were to make it back the village with this scroll." I explained, Kakashi Held the scroll aloft.

"And you decided the best way into the village was by going over the wall?" He asked raising an eyebrow, I nodded slowly and then all at once his demeanor cracked and he started laughing, "You Konoha nin are something else," He got out between his bouts of laughter, "Well you've made it back to the village I guess, congratulations on making it through part two of the exam, let's get you back to the main gate." He finished, wiping a tear.

* * *

AN: Man what a hard chapter to write. It's mostly OK, I think at some point its better to just write and shove it out than continuously rewrite it. So Keiko and Kakashi make it through in unconventional style, as if they'd do it any other way. Please leave a review if you have time. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I'll see you in the next one.

Also passed 100k words woopwoop

Edited to fix Rasa's name, cheers GodOfPixies, no idea how that was missed.


	22. Chapter 22

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

* * *

Those running the exam were surprised when we delivered the scroll to them walking from within the village to the entrance, they asked us to head back to the Kazekage tower where they were sending the teams as they passed.

As I turned and walked away Kakashi did a double take, "What happened to your back?" he asked shocked.

Ah that, "I got hit by the first one of those wind blades, I had forgotten about it."

Kakashi was not going to let it lie though, he grabbed my hand and dragged me into a side alley, "Turn around and let me at least close the wound you idiot, have you any thought for if your wounds get infected."

I smiled ruefully, "Didn't cross my mind" I said as I turned around facing out of the alley.

It was at that moment that Baki, Kazu and the girl passed, and we saw each other at the same time, his hands flinched towards a kunai he wasn't armed with before he thought better of attacking a foreign ninja, "I'll see you in the finals." He snarled.

Scary. Why was he so angry. "What issue do you have with us?" I asked

"Your teammate injured mine, it's unlikely she will be able to compete in the finals due to the muscular spasms she has been afflicted with since your teammate shocked her."

I looked back at Kakashi who didn't even look apologetic and was still busy healing my wound, "She was holding a kunai to my neck." He said simply.

I nodded to myself. That was true.

Baki snarled, "We will see how you like having a kunai actually embedded in you come the finals."

That was going too far, "I apologise if your teammate is suffering some lingering symptoms but we're shinobi, it's no one else's fault than hers for getting hurt the way she did."

He calmed a little but to me it felt like his fury just got colder, "I'm making it your fault." He said evenly before he turned and walked away towards the Kazekage tower.

"How do you think he got through?" I asked Kakashi, "He wouldn't have had time to nab a scroll from another team after chasing us would he?"

"He probably had one before they captured you, they were just helping each other out as Suna shinobi, they seem pretty close knit like that."

That was true enough I thought watching Baki's retreating back.

"That should do it." Kakashi finally announced after a few more moments of silence, I stretched forwards then backwards testing how it felt. No difference as far as I could tell, practically good as new.

"Thanks Kakashi, let's get to the tower. Sensei will probably be there, he'll be surprised we made it through I bet."

* * *

Minato was indeed waiting for us at the tower and when we arrived he congratulated us guiding us into the hall all successful teams were being gathered in..

"I never doubted my little prodigies for a moment" He said ruffling our hair.

"Sensei I don't know if you noticed but Ko isn't really all that little." Kakashi deadpanned.

"Was that a joke from you Kakashi?!" Minato gasped, embarrassed Kakashi went a light shade of pink and Minato chuckled, "Of course, of course. But you know, you'll always be my students, even if you do make Chunin first time around."

He laughed but there was a nervous energy to his eyes that I could sense in his chakra, I sent a questioning hand signal at him, he shook his head and sent me a return one from an angle Kakashi could not see simply saying "Later."

Luckily for Minato Karura chose that moment to appear, "Those of you present congratulations for passing the second stage of the suna exams," She announced, "You will all be taking part in the final part in one months time. This part of the exam will take the form, as is tradition, of a knock out style tournament."

I looked around, there were only eight of us, the other konoha team, the Suna team and us, so that meant one of the teams didn't make it, although for the sake of this tournament it made it a little easier in terms of the numbers.

"Those of you who feel they cannot continue to the third round please raise your hand." Karura instructed.

The suna kunoichi Kakashi shocked immediately raised her hand. Well there goes the neat number, it looked like someone was getting a bye.

Karura nodded and the suna nin stepped back, "no one else?" She waited a few moment and when no one else stepped forward she nodded and a Suna shinobi stepped forward from behind us with a box, "Very well step forward one at a time and select a numbered ball from this box, that will decide the matchups for the tournament, there is one black ball within the box, the individual that draws it will get a bye into the second round."

The suna nin stepped forward first drawing their numbers, the other Konoha team looked at us and I gestured them forward. 'I'm in no rush' I thought to myself, 'The likelihood is I'm paired up against a team that loathe me or fellow ninja from my own village.'

After the other team went Kakashi and I stepped forward and selected ours, I looked at mine for a few moments 'Of course' I thought a little ruefully before rejoining the others.

"Could you please announce your numbers now, starting with number 1."

"1," Announced Ibiki.

"2." Announced Tokara

I flinched, tough matchup anyway you cut it being up against your own teammate.

"3." Drawled Hayate

"4." Said Kazu

I could feel Kakashi beginning to sweat next to me.

"...5." Kakashi said at last.

"6!" Exclaimed Baki, he was sure to be happy with that result.

I turned to Kakashi, his relief was evident, "Then?" he prompted.

I nodded holding up the black ball, "I seem to have a knack for picking these." I joked.

"Very well. Then the Konoha shinobi Keiko will have the bye to the second round." Karura confirmed nodding, "You are free to remain in Suna for the month before the tournament or head back to your home village, whichever you think will be best to prepare yourself for the final tournament."

* * *

"If you think about it we are going to have to face each other at some point either way." I began, we had started making our way back to the hotel, it was the hottest time of day so I was looking forward to making use of my air conditioning seal again, "Because I don't plan to lose and I doubt you do either, so we would have seen each other in the final even if we were drawn at the two opposite ends of the brackets."

Kakashi nodded but he looked oddly at me a little oddly with an expression I couldn't quite decipher, he looked almost torn. I wonder if he had even considered the possibility he'd have to fight me seriously before today. Well no use confronting that right now.

"How are the prospective Chunin doing," A new voice piped up with a yawn, it was Shikaku, he joined our small procession with his usual hunched walk. "I heard you made it to the third stage."

Kakashi and I nodded, "I wasn't able to find out why people live here so you'll have to tell me." I said to Shikaku.

Shikaku yawned again, "What makes you think I know? I was hoping you could tell me, seems like a troublesome place to be if you ask me."

I almost threw myself at Shikaku but Kakashi caught me before I could and left me silently shouting profanities no one could hear an arms reach away, I spent so much time asking people about the village and it was on the behest of an errant curiosity he had!

"We were just heading back to the hotel, we have a month before the tournament so I think we'll be heading back to the village today, right sensei?" Kakashi said.

Minato and Shikaku shared a glance, "About that," Shikaku began, "Ko won't be returning to the village so quickly, there's a task he's needed for here, Minato and yourself will be returning though, apparently Minato has some ideas for your training already."

"Why can't I go back?" I asked

"It's not entirely within our control I'm afraid." Shikaku responded, "I'll tell you more this evening. Minato and Kakashi will be leaving this afternoon though."

"Why can't you tell us now?" Kakashi and I asked simultaneously.

"There are reasons why Ko is staying just as their are reasons Kakashi is going to Konoha to train, we can't tell you why in the middle of a road in Suna so you'll just have to trust us."

I glanced to my left and right, we had just stopped in the middle of one of the busier streets in Suna Shikaku did have a point, "You will tell us later?" I asked him suspiciously.

"Of course, now let's go." It might have been me but Shikaku looked more tired than usual.

* * *

"Let me get this straight." I began.

The day had turned to evening in the village, Kakashi had already left with letters written by me for Kushina, Jiraiya and Tsunade and a message to pass on to Tuechi letting him know that the food out here was nothing compared to his ramen and a request to have some ready for when I got back. It felt oddly weird leaving Kakashi at the entrance to the village and when he left he looked more torn than ever. When I got back to the hotel Shikaku had started laying a real problem at my feet.

"You want me to design a seal for a Jinchuriki, from scratch, within a month and have it be an improvement on the one used in this village and at the same time you are going to train me for the Chunin exam finals?" I said exasperated.

"That about sums it up," Shikaku said, he had taken a seat on the floor in the corner of the room, "This is an A, maybe even an S ranked mission straight from the Hokage and there really isn't anyone else available to take this on."

"But..." I let my hands hang in the air for a few moments before I suddenly remembered, "Wait, why did Kakashi have to leave me behind, he could have stayed to train."

"He has his own training just like you have yours, also I didn't want you distracted on something like this, it isn't an exaggeration that what you do over this next month will be part of the cornerstone of our partnership with the sand village going forward." He explained, he was the most serious I think I had ever seen him.

"I guess that means no Shogi for the month then." I tried to joke but Shikaku just shook his head.

"No Shogi. When you aren't working on that seal we'll be working this month to toughen you up." He said.

"Toughen me up? I don't know if you noticed but I hardly need more training in that area." I signed, smiling bemused at him.

Shikaku shook his head again though, "You're plenty strong Keiko but..." He scratch the back of his head before letting out a sigh with something very similar to 'troublesome' on his lips, "To be honest we weren't going to do this until later in your Shinobi career, when you were older than you are now, we wanted to leave you some part of your childhood considering how you seemed already to have grown out of it on arrival, but with the chance you becoming a chunin in this exam being very real it needs to be done. We can't have someone with some of your habits leading a team. You're tough Ko but not where you need to be."

I frowned, "What do you mean."

"It's been noted from your first arrival in the village that you act like someone much older, your eyes alone sometimes… Anyway whilst you have many of the attitudes of someone much older you still act like a child in many situations, or like a civilian that has never had to live the life of a shinobi. You've shown a great many bad habits." Shikaku explained, he wasn't looking at me but at the wall as if he was looking at some memory playing out before him.

"I don't understand." I said honestly.

"Well as a recent example how about that trap you fell into in the second part of the exam? Kakashi sensed it and had taken action to avoid it but it seems like you weren't able to pick up on the signs." Shikaku explained.

I thought back. Kakashi did seem like he knew about it before it even happened, the only warning from me was my gasp as I fell in but thinking back that couldn't have been enough to tip Kakashi off so quickly, he must have noticed something else. I must have missed something.

"To bring up an example before that, I've read the reports of how you were ambushed on your first mission outside the village and caught unawares by a missing nin hiding his chakra."

I thought back but couldn't see the similarity between the two, true I had been taken unawares both times but with the incident with the missing nin there wasn't any evidence I could have seen him coming.

"And in addition to those, another bad habit of yours is that you forgive too easily." I frowned at this and was about to argue but Shikaku waved my hands away, "I've played you enough at Shogi to know how you think Ko, and you are right… to an extent. By letting go of negative feelings and crowding out conflict mentally you can act without indecision which can help you on and off the battlefield."

I nodded along, that was a large part of my ethos in dealing with most things.

"The problem, Ko, is that in the world of Shinobi by letting go of those feelings today you open yourself to getting stabbed in the back later. Sometimes grudges should be held, sometimes it can be beneficial to hold those grudges. The main example of this I have seen from you is your, as far as I can tell, complete absolution of Danzo after what happened to you. That is a grudge you should hold Ko. You did well in realising he was acting outside of orders from the village but even after he was punished, however harshly, you should not have forgiven him for what he did to you. In situations like this you show the traits of a man who has never been placed in true warfare, a state that must be assumed from Shinobi at all times. To put it succinctly whilst you came to village showing many of the combat abilities we would look for in shinobi you also came without the attitude that gaining such skills would normally have brought, as if they were gained in a vacuum without any exposure to any actual combat."

I looked down at the floor in confusion. Was it really beneficial to think in such a way? Shikaku rose whilst I was thinking and slouched, looking out the window.

"There's one other example of this I've seen in your file. You almost instantly forgave Minato after he, regardless of his intentions, lied to you for the better part of a year. I'm not saying that to forgive him in that case might not have been the best decision. But from a shinobi point of view you were prepared to offer that leeway too quickly. One day that attitude is going to come back and bite you Ko." He crossed to the door. "Get some sleep, we start training early tomorrow." He left through the door and left me staring down at the floor.

Was Shikaku right? Was I too soft? Was I weak?

* * *

I awoke early as was my habit but this time it wasn't because of my sleep rhythm but because I had struggled to sleep all night. I sat up in my bed and fetched the bowl of water left by the door. There was no plumbing in Suna. With water being a limited commodity there was little point, instead if you lived here you drew your water from one of the wells scattered around the village, staying in a hotel though they were kind enough to leave a bowl of fresh water by each door in the morning.

I brought it in and splashed some on my face, looking into the mirror it seemed like the red lines from the corners of my eyes were leaking in to the whites of my eyes they were so bloodshot. I groaned internally and prepared for the day before grabbing one of the storage scrolls I had brought which contained one of the few large sealing scrolls I owned. If I was designing a Jinchuriki seal I was going to need it, though I had no idea where I was going to start, honestly I had a few ideas back when I was studying the scrolls Kushina supplied but they were modifications for existing seals, small optimisations. Thinking of creating a new one from scratch was an almost ludicrous idea. I wished, not for the first time, that I had brought some of Kushina's scrolls with me.

Shikaku met me outside the hotel, it was still early morning so the air was cool still and oddly refreshing.

"You look about as tired as I feel." He joked before he beckoned me to follow him and we walked in silence through the village, almost out of the entryway before he turned and opened a nondescript door that exposed a staircase cut into the rock going downwards, Shikaku closed the door behind us and we began making our descent torches lit our way at first but these quickly gave way to smokeless lanterns.

"The Kazekage has afforded us this space so that you can create the seal in relative secrecy, you probably know already but a Jinchuriki is one of a village's closely held secrets. By extension the seal that holds them is, if anything, even more so. If Suna wasn't so starved for sealmasters there's no way they would have turned to another village to craft one for them." Shikaku began to explain, in the sandstone hallway his voice took on a strange quality reminiscent of air being blown over a bottle.

"Fortunately this area also will also serve as suitable training area for you, you'll be spending your time evenly between the two, if there's anything you need for the seal let me know, I've no doubt the Kazekage will supply it." Finally we reached another door, we must be 3 or 4 stories underground, Shikaku opened it and my eyebrows shot up.

The space was immense, the lanterns which hung on the walls could not even light the entire space and I could only see the roof due to some kind of luminous lichen which gave of a faint glow of bio luminescence from the ceiling, Shikaku picked up a lantern that stood on a shelf next to the door and walked further in, "This space we will be using for your training," he said, "There is another room further in that you will be using for your seal work."

There was another room? How was the village not imploding into this void beneath it?

* * *

In the end the next room wasn't nearly as large and seemed to be set up specifically for the creation of seals with the entire floor a paper white. The floor even had the feel of paper though it couldn't be for no mark was held on it unless it was made from ink. Shikaku told me even that was absorbed and disappeared after a few days. A good place to lay out ideas then, the actual seal though would have to be written on my large sealing scroll. The door to the room was also sealed so that it could only be opened from the inside or by the Kazekage.

"You have until the afternoon," Shikaku yawned, "I'll be outside taking a nap if you need me." He said flashing me a small smile, before the door swung closed and I felt the activation of a small seal on the door.

Suddenly I remembered a question I had needed to ask, "Hey Shikaku," I whispered, opening the door, "How many tails does the biju we're sealing have."

"One." Came the distant reply from the darkness.

One. So the least of all the tail beasts. I could handle that. I hoped. I unsealed my sealing scroll, took some of the sealing equipment that had been provided in the room, scanned the space I had to work with and set to work.

* * *

'That was not a productive session' I thought on exiting the room. I had plenty of promising ideas from what I could remember from the scrolls back home unfortunately they were all so rudimentary, some sealed the biju behind a seemingly impenetrable seal but eventually these all became invariably unstable, eventually leading to the release of the biju, others allowed some amount of the biju to exude from the seal in return for higher stability for the seal but these I decided would eventually cause too great a burden to be placed on the host. It was a problem many of the scrolls I had studied had confronted too, unfortunately they didn't have many answers, only the seal the Uzumaki used seemed to be truly strong and stable but that relied on the particular peculiarities of the chakra the people of Uzushiogakure had held. Inapplicable here then.

Shikaku brought me out of my musing by tapping me on the head, "This," he began, "is exactly the type of habit we're going to work on during this month. Too often you turn inwards, thinking without thought of your surroundings. A little bit of healthy paranoia goes a long way Ko."

'Healthy… paranoia?' I thought sceptically.

Shikaku, ignored my apprehension and gave me a length of cloth, "It's a blindfold, put it on."

I still felt a little dubious but I did and Shikaku guided me to the middle of the room. I could still see some faint light from the lamps through the blindfold but even these disappeared as Shikaku began extinguishing them.

"You'll be trying to avoid my strikes, you'll only need to step to the side," Shikaku said, his voice coming from somewhere to my right, "I won't be holding back much so it'll be up to you how bruised you get today"

I nodded to show I understood which Shikaku must have seen using only the scant light of the lichen above us because I suddenly sensed his chakra almost disappear. I only had a vague sense of his presence, I couldn't even hear him move. And then he struck.

It felt like I had been hit by a boulder, I dropped to one knee as the wind whooshed from my lungs, curled around the epicenter of the blow, my stomach. At almost the same time I heard Shikaku's shout of alarm and my blindfold being pulled off, "Are you ok Ko? I nodded "Why didnt you avoid it?" He asked, lighting a lamp at his feet, he looked seemingly flabbergasted.

"How? I couldn't even sense where your chakra was." I signed weakly.

"My chakra? That's not what you should be looking for, sensing chakra is valuable in a battle where you have already engaged the enemy or in scouting but when you're in an ambush situation what you should be looking for is killing intent". Shikaku explained.

"Killing intent? How." I was aware of what killing intent was to a degree, Minato had told me about it before I even joined the village but I had never experienced it myself.

"How? Well… hmmm." Shikaku looked at me speculatively for a few moments, "Are you able to stand?" I nodded and heaved myself back to a standing position, "I've read from your file that you are able to exude killing intent yourself, could you try doing that now?" He asked.

I looked at Shikaku. It was hard to look at someone who had taught me so much the way he was asking me to but the still stinging punch added some motivation. I looked at him and did exactly as I had to Minato all that time ago.

The effect was immediate, Shikaku turned a light pallor of green and after a few seconds he barked out a breath as if he had forgotten to breathe, "T-That's enough." He said after he inhaled again.

I shook off the state I was in and looked at Shikaku again, "Was that ok?"

Shikaku wasn't slouching anymore, "Ko how can you do that and not be aware of killing intent."

I shrugged, "I've never needed to."

Shikaku shook his head, "Every shinobi needs to, that's likely how you keep falling into traps and ambushes." Shikaku sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, "Every attack has killing intent to some degree Ko, shinobi can sometimes keep a tight reign on their chakra all but making them invisible to even the most talented chakra sensor, killing intent though will reveal their presence moments before any attack and your potential to survive any given attack will depend on how early you sense that intent and how quickly you act."

I scratched the back of my head, "Then how do I go about sensing it?" I asked.

"Honestly every shinobi I've ever met has taken it as rote, it's something you should have learned instinctively, even civilians can sense killing intent, though they don't react very well to it." Shikaku explained, "I don't think I've ever heard of anyone actually needing to be taught to sense it. Perhaps it's related to your ability to give off such a large amount of it." Shikaku pontificated.

"Well… it appears I do." I signed frowning, maybe this was related to my reincarnation, I had lived an entire life in a world that didn't have this as far as I can remember, unlike chakra it wasn't something that was something that was central to your own life force so it seemed to be missable, at least to me. Maybe it is something akin to developing another sense

Shikaku looked at the ceiling for a few moments before he looked back at me, "Ok, let's see if you're completely killing intent blind, that seems like a good place to start."

I nodded.

Shikaku's eyes hardened, that was my first indication he was trying, over the next couple of seconds every lazy line erased itself from his body until he had drew himself up to his full height. He was looking at me with a gaze I had never before seen on his face. Viscous. Bloodthirsty. A few seconds later and even his hands were out of his pockets and then I felt something, it began as a prickling on my forehead like the first beginnings of sweat trickling down my brow, and then a feeling of despair in the very put of my stomach, one of my eyes twitched and I began to suddenly get a very visceral instinct to fight. Then it stopped and Shikaku drew within himself again, looking as if he had never changed.

"Anything." He asked.

I explained what I had felt and he nodded, "That's how most people usually experience it but usually at much lower levels. If you're going to be a Chunin you're going to need to be able to sense even the smallest amount."

"How much were you sending just now?" I asked

Shikaku chuckled, "Just about everything I had. But at least we know you have the capability, we can work with that."

It looked like I had a long way to go.

"Hey Shikaku, we've been at this for a while, I feel like it'll be almost midnight by now?" I whispered, the silence down in the cave was such that I didn't need to speak for Shikaku to hear me, which was lucky considering he'd have to strain to see my hands in the light of the lichen above.

Shikaku had begun training me to sense killing intent by doing the same exercise as before but gradually lowering the amount of intent in each attack, he also thankfully didn't strike with the same strength as he had earlier, I would still be bruised no doubt but it was a small price to pay and it provided plenty of motivation. So far I was able to avoid 1 strike in 3 but Shikaku said I was still nowhere near where he'd expect even an academy student to be.

"And?" Shikaku answered from the darkness, "A little sleep deprivation never did anyone any harm."

He meant to go through the night? "How am I supposed to work on the seal without any sleep."

"Get inventive." He replied, he sounded almost happy, for someone who didn't like troublesome things Shikaku sure seemed to like inflicting them on other people.

I rolled my eyes behind the blindfold, "You know I thought they were only going to torture me during the first part of the exam but it seems like they were-" I sidestepped just as a strike pierced the air where I was stood, "-just preparing me for you. Attacking whilst I'm talking isn't fair Shikaku." I sulked.

Shikaku just chuckled.

* * *

I stared down at my work so far on the seal. I didn't have anything concrete so far but I was beginning to pull thoughts together in a way that could be thought to be an idea. Maybe. If you squinted.

The problem seemed to be where to make the compromise, you couldn't lock all of the power of the biju away and still have it be a stable seal, you couldn't let some of it out as too much of it by far would come into contact with the host and they would be kaput - there hadn't been any seal devised that hold control of a biju's chakra with any degree of accuracy. In the end my mind ran in circles and I might have dozed sat on the floor, I can't be sure but whether it was seconds or minutes later Shikaku knocked on the door for me to come out and begin training with him again.

"How long are you able to stay awake?" I asked Shikaku, it had to be approaching the early hours of day 3 at this point and I was fairly certain the only thing keeping me awake was the occasional hit Shikaku landed, I was still improving but the progress seemed too slow even for me, I was now avoiding around 50% of Shikaku's strikes and he had said that he had dropped the killing intent a little since the previous day.

"Mah, who knows. I've never tried." Shikaku answered in his usual lazy drawl, "How's your biju seal crafting going?"

"Mah, who knows I've never tried." I replied back cheekily, I quickly got a punch for my trouble, "I think I've got some kind of an idea, I'm just trying to work out how to implement it."

Shikaku hummed in the darkness, "Think you'll finish in time?"

"Maybe if I could sleep?" I asked hopefully.

"Not happening."

I was at least glad that whilst I was crafting the seal Shikaku collected food, we had seemed to accept a schedule where we ate one large meal when I finished my seal work and snacks where necessary throughout the rest of the day.

* * *

Working on the seal that day I had to actively agitate the chakra through my muscles to keep myself awake and thinking, Shikaku told me if I fell asleep and he couldn't wake me up he'd have to fetch the Kazekage to open the door and if that happened my training would get worse. I think he has a real aversion to the sun in Suna, not that I could blame him, it was nice and cool in this cave.

When it came down to it the only way to keep the seal stable was to expose the host to some amount of biju chakra and I knew even if I was given a whole year I'd struggle to come up with anything that could handle and moderate a biju's corrosive chakra and continue to work in a stable manner, I considered letting some element of the demon's psyche through since that was at least a part of the biju I could perhaps specify using what I knew of seals but in the end I decided it would probably be a good idea not to expose a person to what all my scrolls called powerful angry demons.

Shikaku knocked at the door earlier this time, though perhaps that was my imagination since I did seem to have made a great deal of progress.

* * *

I found as the days wore on I was using more and more chakra to keep myself going, I had not noticed it before but the longer I was awake the higher the amount of chakra my body used to keep itself running. Now on the 5th (6th?) Day I was not just feeling tired mentally but also physically, I had not spoken since the start of day 4 and even Shikaku had begun to show some small indications of tiredness, his punches at one stage were slowing down giving me more time to sense his intent and dodge him but I think he realised since he sped up again not too long after. It didn't matter too much now though since I was avoiding 9 out of 10 strikes, at this point I wasn't sure whether it was a fault of my sleep deprived state that I was missing that occasional hit or the lowered intent but Shikaku had not lowered the amount he had used in a while so I think I was reaching the point where I could sense attacks in an ambush situation.

"Hey Shikaku, Don't you think this is enough, we can take a rest now right?" I asked hopefully.

"I'm afraid not Ko, you're still consciously thinking about sensing and then dodging the strikes, it needs to be subconscious, instinctual." Shikaku replied. He definitely sounded tired.

"How are you going to be able to tell whether I'm doing it institutionally without thinking about it?" I asked exasperated.

"Simple, I train you until you can't think." Shikaku replied shortly.

That did make a twisted sort of sense. Didn't stop me from grumbling in my mind though.

* * *

I don't know how much progress I would have made fully awake for the seal but I wasn't sure it would be this much, designs and symbols ran haphazardly across the floor, overlapping previous designs in many places, I would have thought this room the confines of an insane asylum had I not known anything about fuinjutsu or known that it was myself who made the marks. For all of their random lines and squiggles though I could see the beginning of a seal becoming evident, I had the compromise I was looking for. Whether it would work? I couldn't be sure, I could only spend my time here being as sure as I could be that it would.

I leaned against the wall and didn't even notice as the world began to tilt but recoiled and jumped mentally when my head hit the floor with a dull thump.

"That's not the sound of sleeping I hear in there is it." Shikaku's voice called through the door.

"No Shikaku." I whispered after opening the door. Not yet anyway.

* * *

The glow of the lichen above the two shinobi glowed faintly giving some ghostly outline to their movements, one hopped to and fro, lashing out randomly with a fist or a kick, his movements seemed lazy but they were nonetheless silent and his strikes were swift and polished. His opponent though simply turned, bent or rolled out of the way and had been doing so successfully for over an hour now.

"You're pretty much perfect at this now Ko, how are you feeling." One asked of the other.

He received no response however and after a few more strikes the speaker stepped back and lit a lamp revealing the one he called Ko who stood awaiting with a blindfold over his eyes, he reached over and removed the blindfold.

"Hey Ko, I think it's finally time for a break." he said again before seeing that whilst Ko's eyes were open there was no indication there was any activity lying behind them.

"Ah. I'm sorry to have pushed you so hard Ko, it was necessary though." He pulled out a storage scroll and unsealed a futon, he then reached out to Ko who flinched slightly but did not resist when the man guided him into the futon closing his eyes with his fingers, "Here you can use the futon I've been using whilst you worked on your seal."

He sat for some time observing, before extracting another futon from his scroll.

"Get some rest Ko, your training isn't over yet but that will be the hardest part." the man pulled a stopwatch out from a pocket, "Huh, good going Ko, we got this done in 9 days, considering where you started I'd call that record pace."

He didn't get any response from Ko but the boy did sleep with a smile on his face.

* * *

AN: Well I sat down to write this expecting it to be as hard as the previous chapter but I got it out within 2 days and I think it's even slightly longer. A lot has happened this chapter though and I think I should explain some of it for completeness because I know I've not been as clear on some things as I perhaps should be. So the reason why Keiko has fallen into a lot of the bad situations he's been in has been because whilst he was a great warrior in his past life he had no actual exposure to war or large scales battles so I thought that inexperience should count for something, and here Keiko is finally coming around to identifying that problem and, hopefully beginning to fix it. Its also related to his habit of being too kind to others and being too forgiving, Hiroyuki was never a hard man with his friends or relatives and there are few times where he'd have cause to, especially with the few memories he had remaining from his old life. That's just my interpretation though.

I appreciate the reviews and I hope you enjoyed this chapter I'll see you in the next one.


	23. Chapter 23

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

* * *

I awoke feeling leaden, it felt like I had been sleeping on my left arm for quite a long time and shifting to sit up made it feel like lots of small insects were biting at it. 'It looks like I fell asleep,' I thought to myself, 'It was only a matter of time I suppose.'

I looked around for Shikaku and saw him looking looking rather resigned around the entrance to the room where I was designing the seal, on closer inspection it appeared that what had woken me up was the raised voice of a women who looked old enough to be retired, she stood opposite a severe looking man who listened to the tirade and, despite his calm face, seemed to be reaching the end of his patience with the woman. I shrugged myself out of my futon and began making my way over.

"... Are the shinobi that killed my daughter-in-law, my son in blood! We have the old seals, we do not need their assistance in this, they will only use it against us later."

The old woman seemed to have finally finished arguing and stood trembling in that state that suffuses you after expelling your anger, as if her body was drained of the resources it needed. The severe looking man - the Suna Kage if the hat he was holding at his side was any indication - took this opportunity to begin speaking.

"I brought you to analyse the seal for the purpose of being sure there was no ill will, you are one of our village's few seal masters, can I rely on you to be impartial in this? For your village Chiyo." The Suna Kage's voice to my ears was like stone grinding against stone, implacable in its tone it brooked no room for argument, his eyes flicked over to me noticing my approach towards the end of his response.

Chiyo seemed to be about to respond but then, in a change that seemed to come by great difficulty, she took hold of herself the tremors in her shoulders ending, her eyes began to lose the heat that anger had blossomed in them, even her fists began to loosen at her sides, "You can rely on me Kazekage." She finally said at length.

The Kazekage stood, as if unconvinced for a few moments looking at Chiyo before nodding quickly and turning to me, "I hope you do not mind young Konoha shinobi, but I believe you will understand the importance of being sure of the veracity of every aspect of a jinchuriki's seal." I nodded respectfully, the man's chakra felt almost as controlled as the Hokage's and just as titanic, it felt like the smooth texture of worn sandstone to my senses.

"I have no problem," I confirmed with my hands, "but there are some elements that may be unclear to one not familiar with Uzushiogakure sealing methods, I'll answer any questions if there's any confusion."

There was tsk of annoyance at that from Chiyo, "You're decades too early to teach me anything new child, I have travelled to the village myself in my time."

I nodded again, I did not want to reignite her earlier anger. The Kazekage looked between her and myself before nodding again, "I leave this to you then Chiyo." He said before promptly taking his leave nodding again to Shikaku on his way past.

Chiyo got straight to work looking at the work that I had laid out across the floor of the sealing room, I glanced to Shikaku wondering if I should stay to help but before he could reply Chiyo spoke up, "If I have need of you I will find you child, begone."

Shikaku shrugged at me before pulling me away.

"Are we doing more training?" I asked.

Shikaku nodded, "Not the same training but in a similar vein."

I frowned, "I have another shortcoming?"

Shikaku barked a laugh, "We've barely started on your worst flaw, though I think this will be easier to fix."

"How?"

Shikaku sat down in the corner of the room where our futons were and indicated to me to sit down across from him before he pulled a scroll from a pocket and unsealed… a shogi board.

I felt my eyebrow twitch, "This isn't training is it? You just wanted to play Shogi."

"On the contrary, I think this may be the best avenue to communicate this lesson." He replied

I raised an eyebrow, "And what lesson might that be?"

"That is for me to know and you to figure out… or not. It depends on if you're up to it." Shikaku said laying out the pieces.

Shikaku seemed to know exactly what to say to push my buttons. I sighed away the frustration and resigned myself to a long day of Shogi, I moved my first piece.

It was a few minutes later when Shikaku played his move and then took one of my pieces and moved it, my thoughts on my plans going forward screeched to a halt in my head, I visibly flinched it was so jarring.

"Why did you move my piece?" I asked

"What do you mean," Shikaku yawned as he moved another of his own pieces, "It's your move."

"I mean you just took my move."

"Did I? I can't recall. It is your move now though." Shikaku gestured to the board.

I glared at him for a few moments, it wasn't like Shikaku to interfere in a game of Shogi in such a way, maybe it had something to do with my training, I looked down at the board and began the process of coming up with a new strategy, the move Shikaku had made wasn't a terrible move but it was… aggressive. Perilous even, at least to my eyes, my first order of business was shoring up defences around the aggressive piece or maybe even putting it into retreat, I wouldn't do that unless I could help it however - it would lose me a tempo and give Shikaku the advantage.

After a few minutes I finally made my move, my choice being to shore up defences and trade off some minor pieces to keep its position. Shikaku took his move and I moved up another piece making the defence more concrete.

Then Shikaku made his move and proceeded to move one of my pieces again.

"If it's a game with yourself you want I can facilitate that." I signed to him, my face carefully blank, I felt he was trying to rile me up by doing this and I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of knowing he got to me.

"Mah, why don't you take your turn." He said moving his piece.

I looked at him for a few moments before looking down at what I could do now. Again the move he had made wasn't bad by any means but it opened me up to more risk than I was willing to take, I spent a few moments re-adapting my strategy before reaching out to move a piece and Shikaku reached out at the same moment and moved another of my pieces before sitting back and yawning.

I wasn't going to continue playing a game like this, I made to swipe the pieces on the board aside but Shikaku caught my wrist.

"I believe it was my move, this game isn't over yet." Shikaku said.

I relaxed my arm and he let go. He moved one of his own pieces and sat waiting for me to make my move, I sighed and looked down to see what I could do from my position.

* * *

Shikaku let me take a break after a few hours of games and I was about to get some fresh air for the first time in days when the Suna woman Chiyo called for me, or more accurately demanded my presence in the sealing room.

"What is your intention here child? A seal made in this way will not last a week, did you intend to bring a rampaging biju down upon Suna?" It seemed she had picked up on the general gist of my seal but saw the same issue I had.

"I'm working on a way to make sure the seal stays strong even after having biju chakra running through it, the alternative as you can see is to have the container have full mental contact with the demon at all times. I think it would be ideal if the container of a village destroying creature had a good grip on their sanity." I signed to her.

She huffed, "Well I can't deny you at least are no amateur in this area. The Kazekage will be hearing about this however." She warned before gazing at my workings for a few more moments before setting her gaze upon me again, "If you cannot find a solution to my satisfaction I will not allow you to endanger the safety of this village." She finished before sweeping past me and towards the exit.

Shikaku stood in the doorway watching after the leaving elderly woman before his eyes fell back towards the room and then finally on me, "You didn't mention you were having issues making the seal." He said.

I shook my head, "Not an issue, more of an optimisation I'd like to make in the usual way of making jinchuriki seals. I'm just not quite sure how I'll do it, I have a feeling I'm on the right track though."

Shikaku nodded, "Take the rest of the day as a break, come back tomorrow morning."

I nodded, I could do with some time to think.

* * *

There aren't actually all that many places to go in Suna, the village was limited by the walls around it and as a result the shopping district was small and there certainly wasn't any large open spaces where you could sit and think, I eventually found myself at a kind of fast food restaurant specialising in a kind of dish where they pile eggs and some kind of leafy plant into a sort of pancake cooked on a hotplate. It actually smelled rather good despite the stall sitting almost empty.

"Welcome," The cook intoned absentmindedly, "any particular preference on sauce?"

Not seeing a menu I assumed that they only offered the one dish. I shrugged, not knowing what sauces were on offer, "Whatever you think is best." I replied, the chef however shook his head brow furrowed. I held back a sigh and wrote out what I had said onto a corner of my scroll and held it up for him to see.

The cook nodded his hands moving with practiced ease across the hotplate, cutting and flipping as he went.

I pulled out a small scroll I had been jotting down some of my ideas for the seal in and frowned, hoping that I might perhaps find some inspiration in my ramblings. It came as a surprise seemingly moments later when a plate came sliding out before me, looking around though I saw I had merely become over absorbed and lost track of time, the stool next to me had become occupied whilst I had been obsessing over my notes.

"Looks good," The man said gruffly, "I'll have the same." He nodded this last at the cook who quickly set some more ingredients on the hotplate as I tried to refocus my attention on my notes, shovelling food with my free hand into my mouth.

"That looks like a mighty complicated piece of work right there." The man said, I set down my chopsticks and turned, he had his head idly resting in the palm of one hand leaning on the counter almost looking over my shoulder. Something about him seemed alarmingly familiar though I knew I hadn't seen his face anywhere before.

I nodded in reply, "Don't suppose you know anything about seals." I joked.

"Not worked it out yet?" He asked, still looking at me in that idle sort of way I was beginning to realise he was teasing me if the smile on his face was anything to go by.

"I wouldn't be here if I had," I sighed, "I think I'm getting close though."

He laughed gruffly and leaned in, "Ah I think I see you're problem, smart to have gotten this far, real complicated stuff." He reached out a hand and pointed, "Your problem is your looking at this as an all or nothing kind of deal, why don't you try balancing out the equation a little." He finished by tracing a line between two elements of the seal.

"That…" My hands hung in the air as I aborted what I was going to say, I was about to say that wouldn't work, he was suggesting using the chakra of the host to balance out the chakra from the tailed demon but of course it didn't need to match all of it, just a bit, a slither at first.

"At least you get that fast enough, huh kid." The man said as he stood up, his empty plate in front of him - I hadn't even noticed him eat.

I nodded before twisting abruptly, "Wait, who are you?"

The man looked back and winked and I saw for the first time he was wearing a henge and suddenly my preoccupied mind put two and two together, no wonder I found him familiar his chakra should have tipped me off immediately, he must have seen the moment it clicked for his smile broadened, "Finally worked it out eh? I couldn't have missed you being in the chunin finals. Good luck kid."

I made to get up but in my haste to go after Jiraiya my scroll slipped from the counter, I caught it mid flight but by the time I looked up he had disappeared into the crowd, I snorted to myself, I could never accuse him of being boring.

* * *

"What do you mean you gave away my room?!"

I had returned to the hotel where I had left some small selection of my possessions, nothing I would miss but still things I would rather have kept, luckily I travelled light anyway and hadn't unpacked much from the storage scrolls when we had arrived.

"I'm afraid I was given the impression that you had left, you haven't been here in days after all." The proprietor didn't seem concerned, he said this as he idly turned a page of a small book, looking up only to glance at my note.

"What about my things?" I asked again, jabbing the note under his nose forcing him to pay attention.

He scowled at the interruption, "Your things will have been disposed of, we have no rooms at the moment, I might recommend you look further afield if you have need of accommodation." He went back to perusing his book and I knew a dismissal when I saw one, no point causing a fuss in a foreign village I told myself. I sighed mentally to myself before leaving.

The comparative cool of the evening air met me as I stepped outside and I took a few moments to think about my next move. I didn't really want to return to Shikaku, he had given me until the morning anywa-

"Don't just stand in the road child, can you not see people are trying to get through." The voice was unfortunately one I recognised but I turned to confirm my suspicions.

"Apologies." I signed as I stepped back, not that I needed to, the road was ten paces wide and she could have made her way through even if I had laid down in the middle.

Chiyo sniffed, "I can see Konoha at least manages to teach their young manners. Well don't just stand there, help me with my bags."

Her tone brooked no disagreement and before I even considered the request I had quickly disowned her of the small bags she was carrying which seemed to just contain groceries and was ambling along easily at her side. She kept glancing sharply at me out of the side of her eyes as we walked.

"I trust not everyone in Konoha is as mute as you?" She asked finally, I shook my head in response.

"Thank the sage for small mercies." she sighed, seemingly exasperated, "I don't suppose you have a reason for lollygaggin in the middle of the street?"

I shrugged the handles of the bags into the crooks of my arms as I explained the situation with the hotel.

* * *

Chiyo had listened to my story without comment and by the time I had finished we were already in her home.

Embarrassingly she caught me looking around at the house, It was the first time I had seen the inside of a house outside of Konoha, "When you're done gawking you can leave the groceries on the counter." She grumbled, "You can stay for dinner?" It didn't really seem like she was asking a question.

I made to help but she stopped me with a stare and I held up my hands as I smiled good naturedly slowly backing away.

"I don't need the assistance of a whelp no matter your size." She turned her back to me and began efficiently chopping some kind of vegetable, after a few moments she continued, "My grandson is upstairs. Sasori. Let him know dinner will be ready in around half an hour."

I nodded, and made my way out of the kitchen into the main hallway. I still found myself wondering at the design of Suma homes. The ceilings were domed so that rooms towards the edge of the house had sloped walls that rose around you, the doorways were roughly cut into the sandstone, only the front entrance had a door. I found the stairs quickly enough and ascended through another roughly cut hole onto the next floor.

Cautiously I explored further, moonlight fell in shafts through small windows cut into the domed roof. The smell of linseed oil struck heavy in the air with the smooth, cut-flower odour of freshly sanded wood, I set my path towards the source, an entryway with two large doors, from where a rhythmic grinding sound emanated.

The door moved smoothly on its hinges producing no noise excepting the quiet sigh of displaced air. The gloom of the room beyond was cast in stark relief against a flickering lamp that sat in an alcove on the far side of the room. Between myself and it though hung tens, perhaps hundreds of macabre skeleton automatons, all made of wood, some with gilded brass highlights in the form of hinges or protuberant additions to standard anatomical design. They seemed to make the figures move around the edge of my vision as the light danced against them.

"Grandmother." A voice called, I assumed it to be Sasori, it was the voice of a child but it sounded oddly flat, like a broken bell.

"Your Grandmother is downstairs preparing dinner." I replied with my hands as I rounded the aisle of human puppets that hung the length of the room.

Sasori place the plane he was using to one side as he looked at me, I felt somewhat uncomfortable, on the surface he seemed an affable child, his red hair lay in a mousy sprawl that cast most of his face in shadow but as my eyes adjusted to the light I perceived his greyish eyes that were uncharacteristically piercing.

"I do not yet know sign language." He said simply and made to rise.

I waved him back to his seat as I took a pad and pen that I had gotten into the habit of keeping on me at all times, "Your grandmother is downstairs, preparing dinner."

He studied me carefully for a moment but did not retake his seat, "Then we should not keep her waiting."

I shook my head and took a seat near his workstation hoping to put him at ease, "She said it will not be ready for another half hour." I gestured at our rather lugubrious surroundings, "Are these all your work?"

Sasori hesitated a moment before sitting down again, his plane fast resuming its rounds up and down the wood in front of us. "Some. Most of them. They are none of them an adequate though. Not yet. Who are you?"

I wrote my name and gave him the oppurtunity to give his own but he just nodded once to indicate his understanding and turned back to his work, "You were in the exams."

It wasn't a question but an observation. "I had thought the first stages of the exams were not loudly advertised."

"They aren't, but I plan to become a shinobi like my parents and grandmother. It's my business to know."

I nodded and let him continue in his work for a few moments, his concentration was such that I felt any further questions would disturb him from something he obviously considered of the utmost importance.

Eventually, he put his plane to one side to pick up another tool, I took the opportunity to ask more questions.

"Do you plan to become a puppeteer shinobi?"

He snorted, oddly bitter for a child, "Do you not think these puppets I have constructed make your answer self evident."

I nodded placatingly, not one for idle conversation I surmised.

"Does anyone else live here?" I asked

His work paused momentarily before continuing, "Not now." He answered. Though he still worked his frame was stiffer than before.

I had made him uncomfortable I surmised. I struggled to come to another subject of conversation and took a closer look at his work, he had turned it over and was pulling long black hair through the wood, it appeared this puppet was a woman. Fr the first time I saw next to the table was another puppet of adult stature, this one though was a man, with the same mousy red hair as Sasori.

'Ah' I mentally sighed. I had heard the old idiom grief displays itself in different ways but this had to be the most macabre setting I had ever seen. Looking at the puppet he was working on now I saw the similarities in the angle of the nose, the turn of the mouth and the one glass eye, already in place, seemingly shining with more light than the child working upon it. **  
**

"I think dinner might be ready now." I said to Sasori.

"You said half an hour. It has been only 13 minutes. I have time still."

I rose an eyebrow, there wasn't a clock around to be so sure of the passing of time.

"I think it has been longer than that, come we should not keep your grandmorher waiting." I repeated his words from earlier, and at that he did lay down his tools.

"I will not waste my grandmothers time but you will see that you have wasted mine." He said as he stood.

I grimaced and made to follow him, his tone did not change but he clearly thought this to be a useless endeavour.

At the door I felt the presence of someone else and looked closer to find Chiyo sticking closer to the shadows furthest from the lamp.

"Observant child." She said, then snorted at my narrowed eyes, "What you feel betrayed, thought I'd leave you with my grandchild alone? I am not senile yet, and your village still has much to answer for." She finished nodding towards the unfinished puppets.

I swallowed. True the blood of his parents was not on my hands but I suddenly still felt some measure of guilt.

"Don't go soft on me child. It was not you who cut them down, and I do need to thank you. Wild horses could not have pulled my son away from his work early. It is a mental hurt that has become physical. I worry, and I do not think unduly."

I followed Chiyo out of the doors, casting a last look back at the room of puppets and the female woman, now I realised fast becoming a facsimile of Sasori's mother, it's single eye gently wobbling in the light of the lamp was where my gaze lingered.

* * *

Dinner was a subdued affair, Sasori could not be brought to speak more than a few words and I could only effectively make conversation with Chiyo to the natural exclusion of Sasori. Once dinner finished Sasori immediately excused himself and left the table heading upstairs.

"That child, he'll be the death of me," she sighed. She did seem to age as her gaze lingered on him as he left the room.

I hesitated bringing my hands up to ask a question, eventually though "Are you sure this is OK? Me staying here. He's probably marked the fact that I'm a Konoha shinobi."

Chiyo snorted, "You worry too much, like an old man. I know what I'm doing. As it is Sasori has had little exposure to the outside world, never mind shinobi from other countries. What we don't know we fear, especially as children. And that can change us. Twist us. I brought you here to give a form to what he feared, perhaps he won't fear it quite so much."

I narrowed my eyes, "You used me." I accused, though there was not too much venom behind the accusation.

"I am giving you shelter for the night, you can't complain." She laughed harshly, "Come now, at your age you cannot have been so trusting."

I smiled, "I am only 6," Her face narrowed in suspicion but I continued, "Or around that age. I'm not exactly sure of when my birthday is."

She looked at me for a few more seconds before shrugging and beginning the task of clearing the table.

"You believe me just like that?" I asked incredulously, she seemed too cynical a person to believe the sky was blue without checking herself.

"I am old enough to know when I am being lied to child. I thought myself old enough to tell when someone was a child but your eyes hold more weight than any child of your age I have seen so I will admit myself fooled for a time." she said, "Follow me, there is a spare futon in the living room you may make use of."

I made to follow her, still ruing myself for how she had so well manipulated me when I suddenly realised.

I knocked on the wood of the table to get her attention before saying, "I'm sorry but I have to go." saying so I stood and made to leave, my feet approaching a run before I had left the door.

"Go then, I didn't want your company anyway child!" she cackled from behind me.

Outside her house I headed back in the direction of the cave Shikaku had been training me in.

Chiyo huffed folding the futon back into the cupboard, "He is a child after all."

* * *

"Even in this cave I know it isn't yet tomorrow morning." Shikaku drawled, he hadn't looked up from the scroll he was reading, observant as ever.

"I don't need any more time." I said sitting down in front of him.

Shikaku paused for a moment analysing me before putting the scroll aside with a yawn, "You always have been a fast learner. Alright, let's see what you've learned."

Shikaku brought out his board and began laying out the pieces before taking his first move.

"I'm not entirely used to being manipulated." I said making my first move.

Shikaku glanced up and smiled, "I prefer to think of this as a bit of gentle cognitive reconfiguration."

The start of the game began as it usually did, it was only when we both had taken our own share of a few pieces that Shikaku finally reached across the board and made my move for me.

'Cognitive reconfiguration?' I thought to myself, 'This is certainly a…' I glanced back up at Shikaku who was looking on with his usual smirk, 'Shikaku way. Yep, definitely a Shikaku way of going about things'

Concentrating again on the game the move was, as was typical, more aggressive than I was used to making but this time I decided to look at the opportunities it might offer instead of retreating and recovering. It required a dexterity of thought that I was not used to employing. Eventually I made my move.

Shikaku nodded his head contemplating, "A good start, but you still aren't seeing all the possibilities. You think in a logical way Ko, your decisions are logical but in your desire to be logical you act… hmm how can I put this" He seemed to think for a moment before smirking, "You act like an idiot."

I raised an eyebrow

"I've told you about some of the questionable decisions you have made since you joined the village but that is not the same as being led to see the benefits of taking these other viewpoints." He reached out to the board and took his move

"... And you chose to do this through Shogi." I deadpanned.

"In a fashion. It's hard to deny the merits when you can see them for yourself." He then reached to one of my pieces and took my move for me before responding himself.

I frowned and paid attention to the game again. So he wanted me to get mad? Could I? I had spent so long trying to distance myself mentally from things that happened, treating events with such a viewpoint of stoicism that I wasn't sure. I had to hand it to Shikaku though, he was starting to get to me. I flashed Shikaku a vicious grin as I made my move.

Shikaku sat up, "Now that is more like it."

* * *

I never did get a true game of shogi with Shikaku that month, I suppose I should have expected him to keep his word - no matter how frustrating both of us found it. By the time the tournament was upon us I was certainly getting the hang of seeing the possibilities Shikaku had shown me though I still struggled with the application. Shikaku had told me it would be enough, I wouldn't be held back from a promotion on account of my judgement.

Shikaku managed to get my hotel room back as well though my posessions were still missing. I was creating a new air condition seal for it when I sensed a flare of chakra from the next room and the sudden presence of two individuals I recognised, I headed to the next room to greet them

"I guess you weren't a fan of the journey here?" I asked Minato, Kakashi was leaned over the bed retching.

Minato grimaced looking a little guilty, "I can't say I'm a fan of the desert. Unfortunately longer distances can make the nausea for people travelling along a lot worse."

A groan from the bathroom Kakashi had made his way into punctuated his announcement, "You never thought to let me know?" Kakashi called.

Minato gave me another guilty grimace and a shrug of shoulders and I rolled my eyes. He probably thought he was sparing Kakashi the worry, he was quick to change the subject in any case.

"I heard from Shikaku that you were successful in your side project?" He inquired.

I swung my head non-committedly from side to side "I think I was, it remains to see what their fuinjutsu expert thinks of it. I have a meeting with them later today."

Minato clapped a hand on my shoulder, "I'm sure it'll be fine. How have you and Shikaku been spending your time? Not playing shogi I hope."

I laughed as I scratched the back of my head but didn't trust myself to answer, luckily Shikaku, punctual as ever chose that moment to show up.

"Did you hear your name from the other side of the village Shikaku?" Minato joked in greeting.

"I was just taking care of an issue with the hotel owner." Shikaku replied, "Nothing to worry about." He added at Minato's inquisitive expression.

Kakashi emerged from the bathroom, still looking a little green and Shikaku brushed him and me towards the door, "Come along children the adults need to talk." He said in an oddly flat sing song voice.

The door slammed closed leaving Kakashi and I in the hallway

* * *

Kakashi was overjoyed to see me after a month away and truth be told it had not been the same without him around. I was still confused about why Minato felt the need to take him all the way back to Konoha for his training.

"Kushina hasn't stopped asking about you, you know." Kakashi told me, we had gone back to the cave where I had devised my seal - I wanted to be absolutely sure of every point before I presented it to the Kazekage.

I smiled, I had missed Kushina's eccentricity myself, Suna seemed dull in comparison, "I bet she's running everyone ragged." I laughed

"You don't know how right you are, she tried teaching me fuinjutsu when I wasn't training for the tournament."

"Perhaps you could help me with this." I said

He shook his head, "I saw some things that look like this in a seal Kushina was drawing once, I didn't even understand that and this is a thousand times more complicated. What is it for anyway?" He asked.

"Something Suna wanted and the main reason why I had to stay behind. Can't say more than that I'm afraid." I spotted a torch coming down the stairway in the distance, "It looks like we have company."

Chiyo emerged from the stairway looking as severe as ever.

"This is the Suna representative that's been checking my work," I told Kakashi as she approached.

Kakashi walked over from where he was leaning against the wall to take a look at who was coming and Chiyo suddenly stopped.

"You!" She seethed, "How dare you show your face in this village after what you have done."

Suddenly she was moving a lot faster, faster than I'd expect of a woman her age and there was something about her eyes that made me think she didn't have the best of intentions for Kakashi. I closed the door just in time and she swung her fists against it creating an impressive amount of noise.

I rapidly started writing a note which I stuck under the door "Chiyo" I wrote, "There must be some misunderstanding - Kakashi has only been to this village once before for the exams, there isn't anything he could have done to deserve this."

The poundings slowed until finally "Kakashi? Not Sakumo Hatake? I could have sworn for a moment, from a distance..."

I shared a look with Kakashi who nodded, "Kakashi is Sakumo's son but he's my best friend, he wouldn't have done anything for you to be this angry." was the next note I shoved through the gap.

"The son of the white fang eh?" Chiyo mused, "Open the door child, my quarrel is with his father so long as he stays behaved I won't harm him. I came to take a final assessment of the seal before I make my decision to the Kazekage."

I opened the door a small amount at first so I could look at Chiyo, to make sure she was truly not going to attack Kakashi, when Chiyo saw me she rolled her eyes and pushed the door the rest of the way open. She didn't look at Kakashi in any kind of way that could have been interpreted as approving but she made no further move to attack him. I gestured to Kakashi that he should wait outside and he didn't argue - probably not wanting to be in the same room as the crazy Suna woman. Chiyo didn't seem to pay him any mind and instead she examined the seal.

"Hmm I see you've made some improvements since last time, I can see what your intention is. Too much chakra kills the host, too little and the seal collapses so you seek to eke out a little chakra whilst making sure the corrosive nature of the demonic chakra does not corrode the seal. Explain to me this part. I do not understand this element."

I looked over to the part she indicated and nodded, it was the key to making sure that the demons chakra didn't corrode the seal away, "I like to think of it as a kind of waiting room. I realised no seal was going to be able to hold all of the chakra of a demon back so I devised this part of the seal to act like a waiting area for the demonic chakra that manages to leak through the seal to wait before getting released to the host. It is basically a storage seal for chakra but made for vast amounts - much more than would leak into the seal in a small time. Whilst it is held there a corresponding amount of the hosts chakra is brought in preventing the chakra from corroding the chakra storage seal too quickly and making it more palatable for the host when it is released. It will of course still eventually degrade due to the nature of the demon's chakra but by that time the host should be well into adulthood and should already be accustomed to dealing with the chakra that manages to get through."

Chiyo nodded along with what I was saying, "And you are confident it will work?"

"I certainly hope so." I said with a smile.

Chiyo didn't share my light hearted joke, instead taking a last look through the seal before sniffing, "On your head be it child. I will give my approval to the Kazekage later today, you needn't come to the meeting." she said before making to leave, at the door she turned back, "I look forward to seeing you in the tournament."

Kakashi walked back in after she left.

"I think she's beginning to like me." I told Kakashi

Kakashi let one eyebrow rise comically high but didn't reply.

* * *

AN: So this year has been somewhat of an annus horribilis for me but I wanted to try and get another chapter out before the end of the year despite that and it looks like I succeeded if only just. My writing hasn't been the best this chapter because of distractions and the sometimes weeks/months between getting the opportunity to get more done. I don't think/hope that there will be as large a gap between the current chapter and the next one. The next one should be the tournament and that should be fun if nothing else. Please leave a review if you have time it lets me know you're enjoying it and what you're not enjoying so I can change it. Without keeping in practice this year I'm sure much of my writing has gotten worse :)


	24. Chapter 24

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

* * *

The day of the tournament came and Kakashi and I departed for the arena which as it turned out was underground. We descended through nondescript doors I wouldn't have guessed led anywhere in particular but the further we descended, through a throng of jovial and excited spectators, the more I realised was held underground in Suna. We passed storerooms filled with pantry stuffs that were being kept cool down here away from the heat of the sun. Further down there were cavernous caves that lead to dead ends away from the stairs we were descending. I assumed these were shelters for civilians in times of crisis. Eventually we came to an opening into a vast underground cavern in which the arena was held. Sometimes I wondered how the village didn't collapse in on itself.

Kakashi and I had discussed what we had trained the previous evening and he had shown me the new ninjutsu he was working on inventing. It had a high chakra demand however so he was only able to show me the once. In the confines of our hotel room the sparks that began chirping across his hands had made my hair stand on end. That aside he told me that Minato had trained him on "this and that" when pushed he said it was mainly speed training though he still carefully avoided looking at me. I had told him about my difficulty sensing killing intent and whilst he hadn't initially believed me he did eventually say that it made sense. Though he was still confused how I can seem so advanced in some areas but completely miss something as elemental as sensing killing intent, there wasn't much I could say to help that though - who would believe that as far as I could tell I had been reincarnated and from another universe no less as far as my remaining memories could discern.

When we arrived we were shown to the contestant area where almost everyone had already arrived, even the other genin's senseis. Minato and Shikaku were absent however. I marked where Baki stood immediately since he was the only openly hostile contestant that I felt I had to worry about. He had taken up a spot as far as possible from most of the others though and didn't seem interested in starting anything before the matches start.

We had one of the best viewing spots in the arena, the box for contestants was built into the wall just below where the stalls began. The fighting area itself was around 50 feet below where the audience sat and smooth sandstone walls rose on all sides. The terrain we were fighting in was half sand, half rocky terrain, a not so subtle attempt from Suna who would want their shinobi to have the home field advantage. My observation of the field was broken by the crowd quieting at an unseen signal and then the voice of the Kazekage echoing across the cavern.

"Welcome to this, the finale, of this year's Chunin exams. All combatants present today are already victors worthy of our respect having won through two of the most arduous tasks our proctors could devise." Cheers greeted his proclamation, I was unable to see where he was speaking from and the way his voice echoed meant that the sound offered no clue either. He must be speaking from directly above us. "I will not see you deprived any longer from the main event, I will defer to our referee for today - Karura!"

Again cheers roared from the crowd as Karura, looking almost dwarfed by the huge arena surrounding her walked out onto the field.

"Today we will hold the first round of the Chunin exam tournament, the final rounds will be held tomorrow!" She announced, "The first match will be Ibiki Morino of Konoha and Tokara of Konoha!" She exclaimed.

The audience clapped as Ibiki and Tokara descended but as the applause died it gave way to mutters, evidently it was somewhat unusual for two shinobi from the same village to face off.

Tokara and Ibiki seemed to share some words between themselves on the arena floor, Kakashi leaned easily at my side looking down with what seemed to be some sympathy, "who do you think will win?" He asked.

"Hmmm…" I took a moment to decide, I had only met these two in passing so I had limited information to decide from, "Ibiki has always seemed like the leader of his team so he should have the edge tactically. It could go either way though." I finally said.

"I keep forgetting you only relatively recently joined the village. Ibiki was in the graduating class of last year, if I remember right he was one of the top graduates. Tokara… wasn't great in the first task. I'm surprised he made it so far."

"I had forgotten about that, what did you do to him?"

"Honestly not much, mostly theatrics." He shrugged.

"Well. Ibiki has the edge then. To put it lightly." I said.

Kakashi scoffed, "Very lightly"

Down on the arena floor the battle got underway, Ibiki seemed to be set on backing Tokaru up to the wall as he pressed him back whenever Tokaru tried to disengage and make some space. I hadn't noticed before but Ibiki had quite an intimidating stature especially to those his own age. Tokaru eventually found a break by throwing some smoke pellets to the ground.

Ibiki jumped back and began kicking sand into the smoke, it didn't take long for a spluttering Tokaru to emerge wiping sand from his face, I heard Kakashi 'tsk' from my side.

With Ibiki having the advantage of being able to actually see his opponent Tokaru received a few unexpected hits for his trouble on his next few attempts to escape and Ibiki finally backed Tokaru against the wall.

Ibiki said something at this point, unfortunately he was too far away to hear but it got a reaction out of Tokaru who looked suddenly wide eyed, through red irritated eyes, at Ibiki as he pulled a bottle from his belt. He was raising it to some sparks he had spouting from his teeth when Tokaru suddenly shouted his surrender. Ibiki grinned at his teammate and began drinking from what looked to be a standard canteen.

"That was a pretty one sided fight." Kakashi grunted, "Wonder what had Tokaru so spooked."

I nodded, he almost squeaked his surrender "Judging by the sparks coming from his mouth and the way Tokaru was acting I'd bet he told him he had something flammable in that canteen."

It was at that point that Shikaku and Minato chose to show up.

"How's it going my lovely genin students," Minato beamed, "Have we missed anything?"

"Just the first fight but it wasn't anything too interesting, Ibiki won pretty easily." Kakashi replied.

"That was the Ibiki-Tokaru fight right?" Shikaku said, "Unsurprising considering their academy records."

By this point the previous combatants had been taken from the field and the next match was being announced, "The next match will be Hayate Gekko of Konoha and Kazu of Suna" Kararu announced.

The crowd roared their approval to this matchup, being just recently out of a war many attending probably had their own pound of flesh to be satisfied watching one side or another getting beaten on the field.

Even Kakashi perked up a little for this battle, "I have heard that Hayate is something of an expert with the sword. My father has told me about him before."

Shikaku nodded, "He couldn't have found a better match in this tournament - Kazu is one of the best kenjutsu practitioners Suna has produced in generations."

True to Shikaku's prediction both Hayate and Kazu immediately drew swords at the onset of the battle and fought head on. They were fast, remarkably so for genin. If not for my training I would have seen little more than flashes of silver and sparks. Eventually they held each other in a stalemate of crossed swords in the middle of the arena.

"Interesting." Minato commented.

"What is it sensei?" Kakashi asked.

"Kazu is winning as it stands. Hayate has the speed to match him but Kazu is beginning to make himself felt with the power behind his blows. Hayate will need to end this quickly if he wants to win" He elaborated.

"Remarkable considering Suna weaponry is generally lighter than the Konoha equivalent, Hayate actually has the heavier weapon but he's the one backing off." Shikaku explained.

Kazu decided at that moment to press his advantage and began swinging indiscriminately, relying only on brute strength to push Hayate back - and it was working. In short order Kazu had forced Hayate back to that the rocky area of the arena prevented him from retreating anymore without risking faltering on his footing, instead Hayate jumped to the side narrowly avoiding a blow that very nearly rent in two the boulder that took it.

Hayate seemed to realise what we had all suspected at that moment and instead of approaching Kazu to try and force him back by force he jumped away to gain space. Kazu didn't push him but re-readied his stance, waiting for Hayate to make the first move confident in his advantage.

Hayate lowered his sword and then slowly brought it up beside him in a two handed grip before suddenly making a mad dash for Kazu, if he was fast before it was nothing compared to now, so fast was he that he almost seemed to leave after images behind him.

Shikaku leaned forward, uncharacteristically interested, "His sensei did said he had been concentrating on this technique, but I didn't think he had mastered it already." He muttered

There wasn't time to ask what technique he meant as when Hayate was almost within striking distance he leaped in 2 directions at once, for his part Kazu dropped his stance, hesitating, suddenly confronted with the prospect of defending from two sides at once. Even I didn't see the real Hayate descending from above until it was almost too late. Kazu didn't see him until it was however. Hayata reversed his grip at the last moment and instead of likely bifurcating Kazu merely knocked him out.

"The match goes to Hayate Gekko of Konoha!" The referee called.

The crowd was deafening. It was certainly a more exciting fight than the one that had preceded it.

I wasn't sure about Kakashi but I could feel the eyes from his opponent digging into his back since we had arrived. I glanced back to confirm and Baki stared back at me his eyes spoke only of promised pain. I turned to Kakashi as the announcer made ready to announce the next battle.

"Be wary of Baki, he is stronger than he might appear and his wind Jutsu are no joke." I told him seriously.

Kakashi being Kakashi simply gave me a thumbs up before flipping over the rail down into the arena below. Showoff. there was a perfectly good staircase down from our viewing platform, one which Baki made use of.

Shikaku moved up to take Kakashi's place at my side to watch the battle.

* * *

Shikaku hoped the month away and the training had been effective. It had been decided by Minato after seeing the results from the psych evaluations that form part of the medical exams shinobi have to take following missions. Kakashi had to take them more often since he was working in the hospital and over the months it had shown a stronger and stronger bond to his teammate, a desired trait in teammates, but in Kakashi it had started to go rogue, becoming almost an insidious obsession. At first it was healthy camaraderie but something changed after the episode with Danzo, his desire to help and protect his teammate had become obsessive, unhealthy even. It only took one look at Kakashi's face when the prospect of fighting Ko came up, outside of a friendly spar in the village, nevermind a serious battle for the future of their shinobi careers in front of thousands of people. This wasn't the kind of mentality that bred good shinobi and would only be damaging to him and any team he was put with in future. Something had to be done, removing either Ko or Kakashi from the team had been discussed but in the end Minato had decided some time away and a strong talking to in conjunction with some training might be all he needed.

We would see. Shikaku knew of Baki, he'd been tapped as a future Jonin even at his relatively young age but he didn't think he had what it took to beat Kakashi even with his 4 year advantage. Once Kakashi got through to the next round and fought Ko we'd have a real idea of how things stood. If Kakashi can't overcome this obsession his judgement will be called into question even if he performs well enough for a promotion. In all likelihood in that scenario he will remain a genin.

He had little time to ruminate further for Baki entered the field at that moment and Shikaku concentrated on the combatants.

* * *

Kakashi sauntered opposite his opponent his ease at odds with the stiff glower of his opponent, looking on I could clearly see he was out for blood. I looked up to Shikaku and Minato to ask who they thought was most likely to win and paused for a moment. Shikaku was looking on with something beyond concentration… was that concern?

I tapped him to get their attention and he almost jerked, not truly, but enough for me to see that I had yanked him out of his own thoughts, "Who do you think will win?" I asked when he looked towards me.

"Honestly? Baki is no slouch and he has the age and experience advantage. That being said there's no real replacement for raw talent and we both know Kakashi has that in spades."

Minato shook his head at my raised eyebrow, "No need to worry Ko, we don't think Kakashi will lose."

"Or at least if he does it won't be because of his opponent." Shikaku added this last under his breath as he turned back, almost too quiet for me to hear. I began to ask what he meant but a roar from the crowd drew my attention back to the fight.

* * *

Minato looked on his hands almost making finger sized indentations in the railing as large boulders of rock fell from the arena wall where a wind jutsu from Baki had stuck it, he forced himself to relax a moment later when Kakashi revealed himself unscathed metres away from the scree that flew out from the avalanche of rock.

Kakashi wasted no time in throwing himself back at Baki, his speed was faster than any of the the genin that had come before him and Minato could smell the now familiar odour of ozone drifting up from the arena floor. During his training he had only gotten faster and Baki was having obvious difficulty keeping up, the problem was the hits that got through Baki's guard didn't seem to phase him for a second. Whatever training Baki did he was obviously used to punishment worse than what Kakashi was currently dealing out.

It came as no surprise then when moments later Baki absorbed a kick from Kakashi, sliding slightly in the sand as he did, and then grabbed the offending appendage. Grinning maliciously Baki threw Kakashi towards the rocky area of the arena hoping to dash Kakashi against the jagged stones though reflexively Kakashi flipped and managed a graceful landing.

That was only the beginning however, where before Baki had thrown his blades of wind individually now a torrent of them rained on Kakashi and fast though he was he was quickly running out of area to maneuver, it was then that Baki upped the ante again, inhaling deeply so that his chest swelled he exhaled at the ground, dust threw itself up around him at first and then expanded so that the whole arena was consumed in a small sandstorm, try as he might Minato couldn't see beyond the dust into the battle below.

* * *

Kakashi shoved an arm up to shield his eyes, whilst the match so far hadn't entirely gone to plan he could still work with what had become of it, he focused his senses on the area around him, no doubt Baki would be able to move around this chaos with ease having lived in the desert all his life. If he wanted any hope of dodging his strikes or, more importantly, the blades of his wind jutsu he had to be prepared to move at a moments notice.

It wasn't long before he did, bending at the waist he stretched backwards to avoid a blade of wind that nearly divided his head from his body, it was a close thing but it also revealed Baki's position and Kakashi charged more electrically loaded chakra to his muscles and moved fast enough that the sand blowing in the storm actually caused abrasive pain to his exposed skin, he wouldn't be able to move at this speed for long before his clothes and then his flesh would get ripped to shreds, if he had played this right though he wouldn't need to.

* * *

Watching from above all I could see was the raging sand but from the chakra I could get a feel for what was happening below, whatever it was it was consuming Kakashi's chakra fast, every now and again I could even see a flash of what could only be blue lightning through the disarray. All at once though the sand exploded outwards from an area of the arena and something, a body I realised, tumbled through the air blowing a corridor in the sand until it struck the wall.

Kakashi stood in the vacuum that had been created, his fist held out. He was tired, visibly so, he gasped a few scant breaths before he followed after the trajectory that Baki's body had taken. Baki though, surprisingly considering the large crater that was now become clear on the other side of the arena had already made his move and moving at an impressive speed himself met Kakashi in the middle of the arena with a jumping roundhouse kick, Kakashi blocked but, tired as he seemed, the blow threw his guard aside and Baki's other leg followed up with a blade of wind chakra. Kakashi had no chance to dodge.

I leaned forwards with a silent shout of alarm as the jutsu made contact with Kakashi but leaned back again when he exploded into smoke. I breathed a sigh of relief. A shadow clone. He didn't know how to do that before he left.

Baki spun on landing, sand kicking up around his feet, looking for the next attack from Kakashi. He didn't have long to wait from below him hands erupted from the sand dragging his body into the ground, Kakashi came up even as Baki sunk. He didn't stay trapped for more than a brief moment though as blades of wind erupted all around Baki throwing up sand and some bits of rock that must have been embedded deeper into the sand. The blades kakashi deftly avoided, the sand though shielded the rocks that flew towards him and clipped his shoulder sending him tumbling onto his back.

Baki wasted no time launching himself at Kakashi trying to keep him immobile on the ground, for Kakashi's part he didn't move fast enough, nowhere near as fast as I knew he could move and in those few moments I suddenly realised why. He was gasping for air, his chakra levels were approaching their absolute minimum. He was in real danger.

Baki made it in time and Kakashi stared up in shock as Baki, now pinning Kakashi to the ground with his larger size and mass, produced another kunai from his holster and prepared to make use of it.

"I surrender." Kakashi gasped

Baki stared down at him uncomprehending for a few moments, he too was gasping with exertion. Then his face twisted in disgust as he climbed to his feet, "Coward." he bit out before spitting to the side of Kakashi's prone body. Finally he turned and stomped away.

"The winner is Baki of Sunagakure!" Karura announced to rapturous applause.

The gong of abused metal made me flinch, looking to my side I realised it was Minato who was looking uncharacteristically frustrated, Shikaku reached out and put a hand on his shoulder.

"You did all you could do Minato." Shikaku consoled.

Minato nodded his head then shook it grimacing, "To have resorted to such subterfuge though. He cannot think he has us fooled with this charade."

Suddenly I was getting the idea I no longer knew what they were talking about, I tapped Minato and looked at him in askance.

Minato sighed, "You may as well know Ko. The reason why Kakashi was brought back to the village before the final tournament was because we were concerned about his decision making, specifically when it came to you." I raised my eyebrows, "You must have seen some of it, he's your friend Ko - but it goes further than that. Any decision he makes whether its on a mission for the village or otherwise he puts you first. A laudable thought but not one the Village can allow, not to this extent. Of course teammates are important, arguably more important than a mission but its a thin line - a judgement call - and its not a call that can be made when a shinobi puts a teammate above the demands of a mission at every turn."

I frowned, certainly I had noticed Kakashi was attached, I had noted it following the situation with Danzo. What did that have to do with right now though? I put my question to Shikaku and Minato.

"Cast your senses down to the field Ko," Shikaku advised. "You'll find your answer there."

I did and… that couldn't be, I looked at Kakashi who was approaching the stairs to come back to the competitors area and then back to where the rubble of rocks were on the other side of the field and then it fell into place.

I balled my fists at my side as frustration and then anger began suffuse me. I turned to Minato who seemed to recoil at my stare, "I'm going to have a word with Kakashi." I ground out before turning and making my way to the stairs. I passed a scowling Baki as I descended the first flight, every step down seemingly only deepened my hurt and anger at what kakashi had done. Finally I turned on a landing and saw Kakashi approaching from below.

Kakashi stuck a hand behind his head in embarrassment as he approached, "I guess this wasn't my exams." He chuckled, ducking his head.

"I hope what I heard about shadow clones passing on memories is true because when I get a hold of you this is the least of what is waiting for you, you damn idiot." I said as I approached.

Something about my tone must have given Kakashi pause because his head lifted just in time to see my fist hit his face.

His body corkscrewed backwards through the air landing on the stairs below before exploding into smoke. 'Shikaku was right' I thought as I stared at the rapidly dispersing smoke, 'sometimes you have to get mad'.

* * *

AN: Tada, what a twist. I have a feeling it is one many will dislike but it was one of the things that was planned from the very beginning and another part of the changes Keiko is accidentally bringing about. It is 3am as I type this so I can only hope there aren't too many spelling errors. I hope you enjoyed, please review and let me know how much you hated/liked it. I'll see you in the next chapter.


	25. Chapter 25

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

* * *

Kakashi waited until the last rumblings of spectators leaving had diminished to a distant echoing rumble before coming out of the hiding place he had ensconced himself into under the rocks in the arena. A part of him felt guilty about tricking, or apparently failing to trick, Minato and Ko. He was sure though that in time they would see he was right, he had seen what Ko had had to go through already, he couldn't put him through any more. After how he basically abandoned him when they were kidnapped by Danzo this was still only the beginning of what he could do to make it up to him. His guilt at tricking Sensei and Ko paled in comparison to that after all.

The trick itself wasn't too complicated though it had hinged on him successfully getting his father to teach him the shadow clone technique. Really the sandstorm Baki had created had been a boon. Whilst it had been up he had the opportunity to create 2 shadow clones and then deplete his remaining chakra as much as he deemed safe and then hide beneath the rocks. He had hoped that if he suppressed his chakra whilst already chakra starved he might avoid detection. No such luck as it turned out.

Kakashi started making his way to the staircase back up to the spectator area for participants, flinching when he saw the spot where Ko had punched him a spectre of the pain lanced through his jaw and he rubbed it absentmindedly. 'He had looked angry,' Kakashi thought, 'Maybe I should apologise. He'll understand. Ko's like that.'

"I suppose you think you did what was best?" Minato's voice echoed from ahead of him making Kakashi's gut plummet, "That we wouldn't notice? What were you thinking Kakashi." Minato revealed himself looking severe, his arms crossed in front of him.

"I…" Kakashi fought for words for a moment before hanging his head, he had had this conversation with Minato before - if only he could see, "I couldn't fight Ko - not for real. Ko will understand." At this thought Kakashi gained more confidence raising his head, "The only person that will suffer from this will be me, it's not that big a deal, I can just go to the next Chunin exams."

Minato shook his head, "You are advanced in many ways Kakashi, one of the most intelligent shinobi of your age. But you still have no capacity for the responsibility you have, no mind for what might come of your actions!" Minato punctuated this last swinging a hand through the air.

Kakashi paled slightly, Minato was serious. Could he have under-thought this?

"I'll train harder sensei. I'll go to the counselling sessions you suggested. It isn't that bad… is it?"

Minato shook his head, plainly exasperated, "You're still a child Kakashi. What do you think will happen when the report goes back to the village that one of our most promising shinobi threw a match representing our village, a match for a chance at his own promotion, because he thought too much of his teammate? A teammate that has shown himself more than capable of putting a stopper in his own weaknesses and will, depending on his performance, likely be made a chunin at this tournament?"

Kakashi paused to think for a moment and then he went pale as milk, "They'd separate us? They can't do that sensei! I've come on leaps and bounds with your teaching - Ko too! We work well as a team, everyone knows that."

Minato nodded, "All true. But a village has to think to the future. You won't always be 'my team', you won't always be on the same team as Ko and you aren't ready for that. You need to be. This is partly my fault as your mentor, you weren't ready for these exams." Minato finished turning to make his leave.

"Wait sensei, they can't separate us!" kakashi shouted desperately.

Minato paused, still not looking at Kakashi, "They will and it will be worse for Ko. Ironic right? There will be no one to guide him through the next steps in his career, I'll give him what time I can of course but that won't be much." Finally Minato turned to Kakashi and his sea blue cerulean eyes had cooled to something more akin to the blue of a glacier. "You will be staying with me. I made a promise to your father and I will make you a great shinobi." Minato left.

Kakashi crumbled.

* * *

"What do you think of your matchup tomorrow?" Shikaku asked Ko as they walked through the labyrinth leading back up from the arena. Looking at him he could tell he needed a distraction.

Ko shook himself after a moment and eventually, "Baki? He's strong. But I'm not too worried. I can hit a lot harder than Kakashi even though I'm not as fast and I have my own ways of dealing with those wind blades."

Shikaku nodded, "Ah, they were troublesome. I don't think I've ever seen you spar, how hard can you hit?"

I snorted, of course he hasn't, his idea of training is lounging out and playing board games, "Hard enough that Kakashi knows what I think of what he did." I replied after a moment frowning again, "How long has this been going on?" I asked.

"Like Minato said we first noticed it after what happened with Danzo. At first we thought it was just a kind of survivors guilt but as the months wore on it got steadily worse. Counselling was suggested but Kakashi turned it down." Shikaku replied.

"He isn't the kind to admit he has a problem," I affirmed nodding, "It would have probably come up as an issue later down the line if it hadn't happened now."

We continued for a time in silence before I finally asked, "So… What's going to happen with the team."

Shikaku sighed, "That's really a question for your sensei but if I'm honest you really need to get your promotion at this exams, I don't need to tell you the higher ups back home are going to look to split you up as soon as they get wind of what Kakashi did. Without a promotion it might be a while before a slot opens up in another team that wants to attend a chunin exams."

I smiled maliciously, "So no prisoners tomorrow then."

"No prisoners." he confirmed before snagging my head by my hair on the way out of the tunnel, leading me left when I headed right, "First though, we have a kage to see about your handiwork."

"I thought they already accepted it?" I asked.

"They did." Shikaku said, "But there's still formalities to go through. I imagine they would like a full report about the seal, its strengths, weaknesses, failsafes. That kind of thing. They'll look over it themselves to confirm everything you say so best to be thorough."

* * *

Thorough was the word. We had arrived at the Kazekage's office in mid afternoon and it wasn't until late evening that I was released, not only did the Kazekage and a sweeping section of advisers all question me about every detail of the seal but when that was over they went through some kind of agreement they were drawing up with my village. A lot of it went over my head but Shikaku made sure that I payed attention to every detail, surreptitiously prodding me whenever my attention wandered. I think he just wanted me to suffer the same pain he was being inflicted with.

On the way back to the hotel Shikaku spent the time drilling me on various niceties of the treaty, what I thought of certain arrangements, how I might have worded it. It seemed rather pointless to me, the treaty had been agreed there was nothing more to be done with it, I could meander through such politics when I needed to but for the most part tried to avoid it. I gave what answers I could though. Eventually we drifted into an amiable silence, thank what gods there might be.

Arriving at my hotel he finally spoke, "You know, if you win you matched tomorrow I'll need to give you a reward."

I looked at him and he was smiling. Not a good start.

"What did you have in mind?" I asked.

"Well the exams will be over. How about a game of Shogi?"

Luckily at that moment we had reached my room, "Goodnight Shikaku" I signed simply before closing the door.

Shikaku's smile widened outside, 'He'll come around to the idea' he thought.

* * *

Inside the apartment, silhouetted against the night outside the window with his gravity defying hair, was Kakashi.

I sighed. It had been a long day and I wasn't sure I wanted to have this conversation at that moment. Kakashi had turned at the closing of the door though and I could tell by looking at him he wanted to have this conversation now. I leaned against the wall and waved a hand inviting Kakashi to say his piece.

"Minato spoke with me. After the match. Made it clear what an idiot I had been." Kakashi began in halting sentences.

I nodded.

"I didn't think it would be so big a deal. Didn't really think at all. I just didn't want to fight you Ko, I don't think I could, not after everything we've been through." Kakashi continued, his voice had become tremulous. He was wearing his mask but it didn't do much to hide how torn his face had become.

I waited. I wouldn't help him say what he meant. I still had those last vestiges of betrayal and anger roiling through me.

"Minato said… said we would be separated after our return to the village. I'm sorry Ko. I never meant for this. I only wanted to help you. I'm so sorry." Kakashi finally broke into his apology even as his face broke.

I sighed nodding, "I know Kakashi, Minato and Shikaku explained," I walked over to him, placing my arm on his shoulder before signing, "What do you think I wanted Kakashi? I can tell you I would have liked nothing more than a proper battle between the two of us. I would have liked to remain on a team with you even after we both became chunin. I would have liked to see you succeed at this exam." Kakashi made to speak before I held a hand up to stop him, "There is still one thing I'd like to do. Do you remember what I said?"

Kakashi looked confused for a moment before realisation briefly lit his face, It was in the moments before his expression fully changed that I punched him, his breath expelling in a long wheeze as he dropped to one knee and I dropped with him, making sure he could still see what I was saying.

"And with that I'd say you're more than forgiven. Don't think for a moment you are getting rid of me that easily though, if our team gets split up when we get back you are still coming for early morning training, someone has to keep you on your toes. Shikaku mentioned that you were offered counselling for this issue you've been having but you turned it down. That isn't still the case is it?" Kakashi shook his head still looking at the ground, "Good. When it comes to admitting you have a problem you can be so stubborn. Having a problem isn't itself a problem. It's when you ignore it and refuse help that it really becomes a problem."

Kakashi looked up and nodded.

"Well then, up we get." I helped him to his feet, and over to his bed where I deposited him before retiring myself.

It was minutes later when Kakashi spoke.

"Ko?" I lifted an arm to indicate I was listening, "Thankyou."

I turned in my bed so that I was facing him and in the light of our dim lamp signed "You know you might have other problems if you're thanking people for hitting you." I joked.

Kakashi didn't respond except to chuckle.

* * *

I woke up the next morning after sunrise which was unusual for me but I supposed it had late when I had gotten back from the meeting with the Kage. Kakashi was already stood by the window looking out of the window, I threw a scroll to get his attention before asking for the time.

"It's only around 7:30," He said scrubbing the back of his head where the scroll had landed, "We don't need to leave for another hour."

"Good," I stretched getting up, "I'm going to go and draw some water and take the closest I can get to a bath."

"Minato mentioned he wanted to speak to you." Kakashi said as I was almost out the door, I leaned back in.

"Minato came around earlier?" I asked

"Yeah but you were still asleep."

I nodded briskly, "I'll make it quick."

Drawing the water wasn't hard when you had storage seals to hold it all. If I had been more prescient I would have stored enough when I arrived so that I didn't have to make a return trip. Hindsight is 20:20 though. I made sure whilst I was there that I drew enough to cross the desert back to Konoha again - there was no way I was going to let Minato flash me back.

After an express style bath it was just about time to leave for the arena and Minato was waiting outside with Shikaku.

"Have any particular plan in mind Ko?" Minato asked as we left the hotel.

"I honestly don't think I stand much chance of losing, I saw him fight yesterday and I've been on the receiving end of his air blades before. I think I can handle that." I replied.

"Shikaku told me he mentioned this but it would be best if you didn't hold back for this tournament, you may not get another chance at another promotion for some time." Minato edged.

I nodded, "I suspected as much when you told me what Kakashi had done, it's obvious that separating us is the best option for this situation. Don't worry Sensei, I'll enjoy the chance to break loose." I consoled, Kakashi hung his head ahead of us at the reminder of the team being split up.

"Well no pressure but I have heard that someone you know has come to see this section of the tournament for himself." Shikaku teased with a grin on his face.

I thought for a second what he meant before I realised, "Jiraiya you mean? Yeah, he said he would. We met up ages ago."

Shikaku's face fell, he muttered something about brats keeping secrets but apart from that the rest of our trip to the arena passed uneventfully. For someone who enjoyed his secrets he really didn't like it when others kept information from him.

The descent towards the arena made me wonder if a lot more people attended the finals than the first matches because where before we were lightly jostled on our way to the arena this time we were crammed in almost and from what I could see of the arena below in the small gaps in the cavern walls the arena was already almost at capacity. Luckily the contestant box offered some reprieve though Baki still looked pretty angry.

As it turned out we missed the pleasantries as Karura had already called Ibiki and Hayate down for their first match.

"Any thoughts on who will win?" Kakashi asked.

I grimaced, "I only have yesterday's matches to go on but Ibiki seems pretty outclassed, Hayate has speed, a weapon speciality and even some fancy techniques, he's going to take some beating."

Kakashi nodded in agreement, "I'd say the same."

As it turned out we were both right, the match started even enough - Ibiki used some kind of genjutsu that spooked Hayate but not enough for him to get lost too much. Once Hayate broke out of it though it marked the last time Ibiki had any control over the match, Hayate was just too fast. Ibiki managed to delay him by the judicious use of flammable liquids and a few simple wire traps but eventually Hayate had Ibiki within taijutsu range and at that point it was just a matter of time before he broke his guard. It was a lightning hook that finally did it, any other person Ibiki's age might have gone down from the swing and it's delivery but he managed to stagger on his feet for a few moments before Hayate finally caught him from behind and held a kunai to his neck.

"I surrender." ibiki ground out, plainly not happy about his performance. I didn't think there was much more he could have done though. If I was deciding the Chunin promotions I don't think I could discount Ibiki based on his performance, he had defended better than I thought he could against an opponent that from the outset looked to be the more capable. There was something to be said for the strategy he managed to deploy even if it didn't necessarily net him a win this time. Looking closer now that the match had ended I could even see that one of Hayate's arms had sustained a burn. He proffered it gallantly to Ibiki to shake before they began making their way back to the box.

"The next match will be Keiko of Konoha vs Baki of Suna!" Karura announced all too soon.

There were excited cheers at the announcement, no doubt the home crowd wanted to see their champion win another round. We would see how long that optimism would last.

Minato clapped me on the shoulder and smiled, "Good luck, not that you need it."

Kakashi looked at me and nodded echoing Sensei's words.

"I hope you last longer than that coward." Baki spat as he headed for the stairs.

'I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy this match' I thought as I head for the stairs.

"Oi Ko, if you lose we play five Shogi games."

On second thought, let's just get the win - that's the most important thing!

* * *

Being down in the arena was a very different feeling to watching it from above. From here I could see all of the spectators, individual rows at first but they soon bled into a conflagration of riotous colors. The sound down here was immense and echoed from all sides, I eventually tore my eyes away to pay attention to my opponent who was standing resolutely on the other side of the field. Karura appeared as I took my spot opposite but I didn't take my eyes away from Baki.

Karura proclaimed the start of the match and suddenly the arena dropped into silence.

Baki made his first move immediately, sending a blade of wind directly at me. 'Minato suggested I make a show' I thought to myself, 'So let's get started'. I swung out a hand and nonchalantly deflected the blow to the side, true it stung my hand a little but the effect it had on Baki was worth it, a flash of shock crossed his face before he returned to his mask of hatred.

I leaped towards him intending to overwhelm him at close range but he exploded into a flurry of movement and suddenly I was confronted with at least 5 different blades of wind, I covered myself in the Lions mane jutsu which took most of the blows. I emerged from my cocoon as soon as I landed and engaged Baki who grinned, confident he would be able to overwhelm me in taijutsu and as a fist grazed my forearm I had to admire his strength. It was a novel experience fighting someone with such a different taijutsu style, I vaguely remembered being told in the academy every village tended to have a different base style they taught their shinobi, this one flowed elegantly from form to form but didn't lack power, especially in the hands of Baki. It was grossly immature in comparison to my own though and it took seconds to deconstruct, when I caught Baki's fist after a few moments of wild combat his eyes widened, I bent it back on itself until I could feel the strain of the bone. Baki fell to one knee, in obvious pain. I reeled back a punch and swung at his face. My fist met initial resistance before following through as his face disintegrated followed by his body.

A sand clone, probably made in the moments I had my Lions mane jutsu up. I swept my eyes around the arena looking for where Baki might come from.

* * *

"Did he just evaluate his opponents style in moments and come up with a perfect counter?" Shikaku asked glancing at Minato, "What did you teach him?"

"Actually very little as far as taijutsu goes," Minato replied rubbing the back of his head a little sheepishly, "He doesn't often talk about it but Ko has his own fighting style that he had fully formed when I found him at the age of 3, by all estimates it's one of the strongest the village has ever seen. People often see him as a genius of fuinjutsu but that's just a learned skill, he was made for taijutsu. All I really worked with him on was teamwork, Kakashi and him really didn't need much encouragement in pushing their own skills." Minato explained.

Kakashi nodded, "I haven't seen him lose in a purely taijutsu battle unless the opponent has a large size or strength advantage over him, and I don't think that could be a problem for too much longer. Even in our spars I can barely touch him and I'm three times as fast and have been fighting him literally since we were still at school."

Shikaku wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't seen it himself.

"He's not doing too bad right?" A new voice booked from behind them making kakashi and shikaku jump, they relaxed though seeing it was Jiraiya, "Kid's got guts."

Minato nodded acknowledging his sensei and agreeing with his sentiment, a large crack from below them drew their attention back to the match though.

* * *

I felt Baki before I saw him (thanks Shikaku), trying to blindside me with another windblade. The blade soared over my head though and hit the arena wall at my back, he was trying to bring the wall down on me like he had kakashi. He smirked as the rocks fell, now too late for even Kakashi if he had been in my position. Instead of running though I leapt up towards the rocks and began throwing, punching and kicking the rocks towards Baki who, faced with a barrage of stone - some as large as him, paled and began rapidly throwing blades of wind at the offending projectiles. The rocks and small boulders made a huge racket when they hit the rocky section of the arena Baki was standing on but he had escaped from any serious injury by retreating to another area of the arena, his headband hung askew and one of his arms looked like it had received a nasty graze from one of the rocks. Baki seemed to decide he wasn't going to win in a straight up match and began repeating the jutsu he had done against Kakashi.

I had no shield against the sand for my mouth or my eyes so I made a makeshift barrier for my face using the Lions mane jutsu. This did make it harder to see but I didn't expect to see much in this storm. A wind blade swung out of nowhere but I batted this aside like I had the first and sent my Lions mane technique in the direction it had come, a grunt of surprise punctuated my attempt and Baki was forced into close range again with no other avenue left for him as he was hemmed in by my jutsu. He seemed unable to fight hand to hand and keep up his sandstorm but he still tried to do so for a few moments whilst he looked to disengage and put some space between us. I wasn't going to let him get away so easily though, I stamped on his foot as he knelt to jump away and he let out a shout of pain even as I felt his bones crack beneath my foot, splintering like dry twigs. The sand fell around us, his concentration broken. Not a sand clone this time then, with him immobilised I reared back a fist and punched him across the field.

His body pinwheeled loosely, losing his headband and a few kunai from a pouch and kicking up clouds of sand on his careening journey across the arena before slamming into the arena wall. Spider web like trenches spread out from the impact site and Baki stayed embedded in them like a large fly.

"The winner is Keiko from Konoha" Karura announced.

There were cheers again, less raucous than before though. They had, after all, lost their last contestant from the same village. I walked over to Baki as the medics rushed out, I didn't want to have accidentally killed him in a glorified spar and had modified my strength appropriately for the final blow but after a few moments of that miraculous green glow he seemed to gain some semblance of alertness. It was a good thing I had thought not to punt him in the direction of the jagged rocky area of the arena. I returned to the contestant box.

* * *

Coming back up to the contestant box I was only half surprised to find a practically beaming Jiraiya.

"That's the way to do it!" He said, greeting me with a playful punch to my arm, I grabbed his forearm and brought him forward into a hug with my other arm.

"Thank you for the help with the seal," I said into his ear, "It saved me a lot of precious time worrying and thinking for a solution."

Jiraiya though waved me off as Minato, Shikaku and Kakashi stepped forward, "Your… enthusiasm is going to cause a slight delay to the next match," Minato said with a smile, "How are you feeling? You'll be up against a kenjutsu expert next, I know they teach you how to deal with armed enemies at the academy and I've no doubt you might have picked up some small bits in training but you'll need to be really careful in this match. Hayate is every bit as good as he showed himself to be in this exam."

I nodded aware Hayate was probably listening in from his corner of the box, "I don't know if I'll win, I don't think I've ever faced a shinobi kenjutsu practitioner. I'm going to give it my all though!" I finished enthusiastically.

I accepted Kakashi and Shikaku's congratulations whilst a part of me ruminated on the problem ahead. The shinobi part of the equation was going to be the complication, I knew more than enough to deal with swords unarmed but at the speeds shinobi could get to I would be treading a tightrope every second of the way. And Hayate had shown himself to be plenty fast in his previous bouts. I needed to do some thinking. Ostensibly looking on as they repaired the damage to the arena I shifted my hands into the bird seal and my mind released itself to possibility.

* * *

Hayate had watched Keiko carefully since the start of the tournament, he was known as a prodigy back home, his name not spoken with the same reverence as Kakashi yet - he had, after all, appeared from apparently nowhere and many people were distrustful due to how he looked and his relative age to his stature.

Hayate could see when a person held themselves with skill though and Keiko was faultless in that regard, it may have seemed like he employed some unconventional tactics in his match but he could see he was in control every moment of the match and once he was in touching distance of his opponent it almost seemed like he was disassembling an interesting toy before he beat him. If Hayate wanted to win he could not allow Keiko to get into a taijutsu battle that was for certain, he had a longer reach and he almost certainly had more strength to go with it. Luckily he had a leveller in that regard as his sword more than made up for the difference in reach and it took much less effort to cause damage.

Hayate put the thought of taking a loss out of his mind. He wanted to be Anbu, this tournament was just a stepping stone, once he made chunin he would just be one step closer to his dream. He would win this match.

* * *

It seemed only moments later when I was brought back to reality by a hand landing on my shoulder, I turned to see Jiraiya, "You in there kid, the start of your match has been called. Are you ready?"

I shook off the nara state and grinned back at Jiraiya, "You bet!" I replied enthusiastically before, in a mirroring of Kakashi's move from the other day, I fell backwards over the edge and down towards the arena.

* * *

Down on the field Hayate already stood, watching me carefully. The crowd was cheering boisterously, the loudest I had heard it, I guess with all the homegrown talent knocked out they were really just looking forward to a good fight. Looking back to Hayate I got the idea that they might just get that.

Karura stepped out again onto the field as I took my position opposite Hayate a few feet away, I realised then for the first time that I was a little nervous, the last fight I had been pretty confident in but Hayate had me beat in a few areas I couldn't compete in for the moment, namely speed and the reach his weapon afforded him. I had my own plan for how I wanted the fight to go but the best laid plans rarely survived first contact with an experienced foe.

Hayate though I realised looked just as nervous as I felt, a non shinobi probably wouldn't notice but his quick glances to the crowd surrounding us and the way his fingers twitched as if they longed to hold something gave it away. At that moment Karura stepped between us.

"Good luck you two, I would have liked to see a suna shinobi in the final but we can't all get what we want," She flashed us both a vicious grin, "Give us all a great show, OK?"

We both nodded, a little shocked at her sudden enthusiasm, and she walked away. I looked to Hayate who gave a half smile before offering me his hand. I smiled back as I shook his hand. It wasn't quite a seal of confrontation, we would after all be going all out and that was reserved for friendly spars, but the meaning of the gesture was clear.

* * *

The battle began what felt like only moments later and Hayate began by rushing me after setting up the same stance he had used against his first opponent. I watched wearily for even though it was the same stance he was not yet holding his sword which remained sheathed at his side. When he was just about to enter my range he drew and slashed in one graceful movement. I jerked my head back as some half forgotten knowledge in the back of my head reminded me that the first draw of a sword also often constituted the first attack. Battles between swords rarely lasted long after all, to waste movement merely drawing your blade was inefficient. My last minute save rescued me from anything deeper than a light scratch to my face but distracted me long enough that I didn't see the moment when Hayate divided into 3. Similarly to before 2 of them dashed to either side, I felt the majority of the chakra I could sense from him drop below the sand though.

I feigned caution keeping my gaze on the 2 clones but occasionally glancing up. I dodged the blow of one of his clones before I felt his chakra approaching from below, before his second clone had chance to make his move and before Hayate himself below the sand had the opportunity to setup for his strike I kneeled and thrust down, grabbing the arm of Hayate.

There bowed over the spot I thought I had won, I felt the smallest spike of killing intent, the only warning I had and almost too late. I launched myself backwards and rolled. The sand that had been where I crouched plumed smoke, sand and… orbs of crimson. Looking down at my abdomen I saw I hadn't escaped unscathed, a small waterfall of blood fell down from my chest. Not too deep but deep enough that I would want to end this soon if I didn't want to leave the arena on a stretcher. I grit my teeth at my own lack of thought. Of course he knew I had seen him use that move before - he wouldn't show me the same move twice.

Hayate flicked the sand and dirt from his sword and then ran at me again, he abruptly stopped just out of reach and then began jumping to the side, fast and then faster. 'He isn't wasting any time' I thought. I had barely the time to regain my stance by the time he was jumping around me.

Soon enough there were doubles of Hayate teeming about me kicking up a considerable amount of sand, I considered jumping away but didn't want to risk my legs getting a length adjustment on the way through, instead I gritted my teeth and watched for my opportunity. I could still rescue this situation if I could keep to my plan.

'There!' I felt an attack coming from my right, and overhead slash intended to end this quickly, I twisted on the spot seeing the glint of the blade descending almost too late and clapped my hands around the blade as I threw myself away with both the momentum of the blade and myself. Hayate leapt with me, somehow managing to keep a hold of his sword.

We regained our feet opposite each other and I flinched slightly seeing that I had not quite arrested all the momentum away in the roll, the blade had managed to slice through a good deal of my palm and blood ran from where I held it to the hilt before dripping away into the sand.

Hayate gave his sword a tug, almost dislodging it despite my grip, the blood had become a macabre lubricant for his purposes and it was only a matter of time before he got away.

'Fine,' I thought, 'If I can't get the sword from him…'

Between tugs I slid one of my hands further down the sword and then pushed with both hands, the weapon showed some initial resistance before shattering leaving Hayate with a handle and a blade that came to an abrupt end 2 inches from the guard.

He turned with a kick that kept me at range before leaping a small distance away, glancing down at the scraps of his sword he grimaced before throwing it aside. I had hoped he would surrender at this point, my vision was beginning to tunnel and my heart was trying to beat faster to make up for the lack of the blood making it to my organs, ironically this only reduced the amount of time I had left.

He must have seen how close I was to my limit because instead of surrendering he advanced, I might have had him beat in taijutsu normally but in my current condition I could barely think, I only knew I had to end it fast.

I stepped forward lethargically as Hayate approached, bringing up my hands ready to defend before suddenly I realised I couldn't feel my legs, the tunnel had begun to close, Hayate hadn't seen as he had already thrown a punch where my head was. I was already falling I realised.

I was going to lose. My mind seemed to accept this, embracing the darkness closing in, oddly warm. A voice in the back of my head screamed through it, insistent on being heard.

"Do you want to lose?!" It shouted.

I had already lost. I was already falling. If I fell I lost.

"Then stand!" it exclaimed.

The darkness receded. The subconscious voice in the back of my head was right. I threw one of my feet forward, catching myself in a crouch beneath Hayate's punch. I swung with the strength I had to spare at his side. It wasn't enough to launch him but he rose with the fist, his mouth gaping soundlessly, before rolling off onto the ground where he wretched, attempting to stand. After a few moments he collapsed.

Somewhere in the distance someone was shouting, there was a lot of shouting. I was falling backwards though even as someone appeared over me with glowing green hands.

He might have been saying something but I couldn't hear. I could see Jiraiya in the viewing box giving me a thumbs up, his lips were mouthing something I struggle to make out... "nice win" I eventually discerned. I had won. I smiled as I let the burgeoning darkness take me.

* * *

AN: I wanted to get more done here, at least get up to their return to the village, I thought I'd get at least 20k words done, mostly to make up for the lack of regular updates but also to celebrate getting past 1k favourites, unfortunately I've been pretty ill and it's gotten worse in the last few days so I'm not sure when I'll be able to write more. I do know that if I were reading something I would rather something be put out rather than waiting so here is all of the story so far that is in a coherent enough state to release. Hopefully this illness will get off my back and I'll be able to get more out soon but until then I'll see you in the next chapter.


	26. Chapter 26

Diclaimer: I do not own Naruto

* * *

The rest of the time in Suna was spent quite leisurely, I awoke in a small ward built into the stadium for the recovery of injured participants such as myself. When I woke up Shikaku and Minato admonished and praised me in turn for the sangfroid I displayed in simply catching Hayate's sword, they seemed split on whether it was ingenious or the height of stupidity. I only remained there for the afternoon though and after playing a game of shogi with Shikaku - in which we drew - and after a visit from the Hokage who congratulated me on my win before he had to depart back for Konoha himself, I was duly judged to be in well enough shape and ejected from the facility.

The remains of that day I spent with Jiraiya where we discussed my match, some of the niceties of sealing and just generally catching up, though Jiraiya himself wasn't able to tell me much about his activities of late. He also impressed upon me the importance that I continue my training with the toads, "The earlier you start the better." was the way he conveyed it to me from which I took the meaning that it was not simply going to be a few days away.

In the evening Kakashi and I packed what little we had and settled in after promising Minato that any surprise teleportations back to Konoha would have swift retribution from both of us, he laughed off the threat but seemed happy enough to make the trip the old fashioned way in the end.

The trip back was marred by the sole complication of a group of nomads, seemingly on the warpath. Shikaku spotted them first and we hid behind a dune as we watched their dust cross the horizon. According to him they were the same tribe that owned the water hole we had used on the way to Suna, judging by how riled up they were I think they had some way of telling whether someone had used one of their wells. Once they were gone from sight though we carried on and after a few days we found our way back to Konoha.

* * *

"OK my little genin," Minato began, turning to us at the gate, "You all have the rest of today free. I have a report to hand in to the Hokage. I imagine it won't be too long before he calls on us to report so keep your schedules open."

Kakashi and I nodded, before Minato smiled and disappeared in a flash. At least he had waited until he had gotten back and not brought either of us for the ride.

Shikaku yawned before giving a lazy wave and disappearing in the direction of the nara compound.

"What do you plan to do?" Kakashi asked, turning to me.

I leaned back on the balls of my feet considering for a moment, "I think I have some errands to run before I head back home. See you tomorrow morning for training as usual?" I said.

Kakashi nodded before waving and disappearing in a shunshin. I was going to have to learn how to do that at some point. For myself I pointed my feet in the direction of the Konoha bank and began making my way into the village.

* * *

Every Shinobi was given a bank account, I had never had much reason to use it since shinobi were given a certain amount of the base equipment needed for missions and you could make that last quite a while if you took care of it, added to that Minato and Kushina spoiling me, kushina even sneaking some spending money into my bag before I went to Suna, and I had never had cause to even check my balance since arriving in the village. That said I did have a rough idea of how much money was worth so I was shocked to find I had almost 150,000 Ryo in my account. I could probably purchase all the materials to build the house I lived in all over again with that amount of money. Shinobi sure got paid well. I withdrew 55,000 ryo, placing the cash in a scroll I had in my backpack before heading to my next destination.

The blacksmith that I had delivered metal to, what seemed like so long ago now, had expanded its wares since I was last there. The Smith himself I could hear was in the back where I assumed his workshop was, his hammer rang in the distance. I had come for two things. The first was a sword, I felt guilty breaking Hayate's sword even though we had been in a tournament. I spent some time looking among the swords before eventually finding a sword that was of a similar length and style to the one I broke. This one however was plainly made by a master, there was no guard, instead the polished black guard almost melted into the blade itself. I swung it a few times myself judging the weight, trying to decide if it felt similar to the one Hayate had held before nodding to myself. It was close enough. I picked up the sheaf and put away the sword before checking the price and balking, it was fully half of what I had withdrawn from the bank. Sighing I hung the sword at my side before going deeper into the shop and seeing if they had anything for me.

Since I was either leaving Minato's team a chunin or leaving it to join another mentor I decided it was time to expand my skill base. Learning to use a weapon considering what had happened in the tournament then seemed ideal. I was having the same issue I had last time I had entered this store though, nothing seemed quite right in my hands. I passed through swords, daggers, smaller bladed weapons, bows, even a few crossbows, spears, shields, halberds. By the time I had almost reached the end of the shop I had spent over an hour looking through the wares. All that were left were staffs and none of these seemed right either.

They had staffs of iron that were too heavy, wooden Bo staffs that I knew would splinter too easily for my uses, cudgels, clubs, at this point I was just running my hands along the rack hoping for something to stick out, when a dark wooden staff rolled from my hand and struck the edge of the box holding it with an almost metallic noise I paused. That didn't sound right.

I pulled the offending staff out, it was heavier than a wooden staff but not unwieldly, I tossed it from hand to hand experimentally, it felt incredibly dense.

"It's Ironwood." A voice barked from behind me.

I turned, masking my initial surprise, "Ironwood?" I asked.

The smith looked down at my hands before barking a laugh, "Mute eh? You might turn into one of my best customers, aye lad, Ironwood. Used to grow in the land of iron but they guard their supply carefully now so what supply I can get of it usually comes from the deserts of Suna, it's one of the few plants hardy enough to grow there."

I nodded considering, "I haven't seen a staff like this before."

"That you won't, usually the pieces I receive are too small to make into a staff, their usual use is whatfor dagger handles and suchlike, rare that I receive a piece large enough to make into a bo staff, rarer still that I put the effort into making one from the blasted stuff. It absorbs oil like no one's business. Not to mention it takes me days just to get it into the right shape." He replied gruffly, "You probably won't find it's like elsewhere in the village. It's useful though, there's not many swords that'll make even a mark on that."

I smiled, "I think I'll take it." I said.

The smith grunted again, glancing down at the sword that already hung at my side, "That and the sword is it? Bring them up front and I'll ring you up, the staff is 30,000 ryo, but let's call it 50,000 total, first time customer discount." He finished looking back with a grin.

And I thought for a moment I was going to need to make a return visit to the bank. I was beginning to like this old smith, his face was cooked in soot and his dark beard hid what was left of his face but his eyes had a spark to them that I had come to associate with a roguish camaraderie.

"I'm guessing the sword isn't for you lad, am I right?" The smith asked when we had returned to the counter.

"No, it's more of a gift."

"Indeed? Didn't think you had the makings of a swordsman, you've not the build for it. But if it's to be a gift then it'll need to be lookin' like one." The smith pulled a box from beneath the counter, roughly the length of the sword, pulling back the lid he placed the sword inside carefully among some already present wood shavings and replaced the lid.

"Thank you..." I hovered for a moment realising I didn't have his name.

"The name is Kaji" he said with barely a glance as he fished a cloth bag for my staff up from below the counter.

I nodded as I unsealed the money onto the counter, "Keiko."

Kaji smiled as he scraped the cash from the counter, "Well Keiko, if you do somehow manage to break that staff don't be coming back here, I'd sooner put my head to the coals than make that thing again."

I thanked him again as I picked up the sword and staff and left.

* * *

"Ko! I had thought I would have to chase you down for a checkup."

"I wasn't really on a mission so do I need to have one?" I tried.

Tsunade wasn't taking no for an answer though and she practically dragged me to an examination room. In truth I had come to the hospital for another reason entirely but I did need to speak to Tsunade so I wasn't too resistant.

Once sat down and with Tsunade running her glowing green hands over me I decided now was as good a time as any.

"Could you check my voice chords to see if they've improved at all, or if there is anything you can do?" I asked. I had come to the hospital because with the possibility of moving teams or becoming a chunin I had come to the conclusion that it wasn't ideal that I remain mute, there were some situations where the immediacy of being able to speak could save lives. If I became chunin I definitely couldn't lead a team with that kind of handicap.

Tsunade hmmed before moving her hands to my throat, "I have been doing my own research in this area, throats are all too sensitive unfortunately and conditions like your own aren't unheard of. That being said," she sighed, "From what I can tell there has been little change, not even the risky ideas I've been thinking about would be worth trying, if there's a solution to your issue I don't think you'll find it in a hospital."

I nodded, it was only a faint hope, as she marked off the rest of my medical exam and kicked me out of the hospital I left resolute in my last remaining area of hope, fuinjutsu.

* * *

Fuinjutsu might be able to solve a lot of problems but it always seemed like you had to meet it halfway for anything there wasn't a tried and tested method of creating. I knew how the voice worked, air passing through the throat causing vibrations, I decided it would probably be best to keep the air out of this one, at least the air inside me. Storing my air away even temporarily seemed like a surefire way to suffocate myself by accident. So I would need to perhaps draw air from outside rather than from within myself. That was the first problem more or less solved, the issue of actually having it produce the sounds that I wanted wouldn't actually be much of an obstacle since much of a seals use was dependent on what the intention of the creator was, in this case though, just to be certain I decided to make it a two part seal, one part to go on my tongue and convey what shape it was into the main seal to have it modulate the sound in the desired way.

The final problem was the real sticker and the reasons why I was surrounded by mounds of scrolls in my living room, I had even pulled out the notes I had on Minato's hiraishin seal since that had so many models for physics interactions I was sure one of them would use sound. Unfortunately there just seemed to be no measurement for the pitch of the sound and as a result the few prototypes I had created produced a sound that jumped to different frequencies unpredictably, I decided this must be due to how much air it was actually able to take in at that moment and the others I made either did nothing or produced a sound beyond beyond human hearing.

It seemed I was left with two choices, either create the seal in an incredibly convoluted way so that the amount of air it took in and expelled was made regular and at intervals or I was going to need to develop a new rune in my fuinjutsu repertoire for sound, something Kushina's scrolls had only hinted at the possibility of.

Speaking of Kushina, she chose that moment to come running through my door, "Kei!" she exclaimed, "I heard about your matches, I'm so happy for you, why didn't you tell me you were… what's this?" She trailed off at seeing the amount of paper between myself and her, lucky for me I think it had saved me from a patented Kushina bone crushing hug.

"I've been trying to find a way of fixing my speaking issue." I replied, "Tsunade says my throat is still too damaged and it's unlikely to get better at this point so I'm looking at alternatives."

Kushina nodded seriously before sidling over to the table and taking a look at what I had so far which wasn't a lot.

"Ah… you want to create another character?" She said at length.

"That's the long and short of it, the problem is I don't really have a way of measuring the output and it comes out all garbled if I don't."

"Instead of just measuring the sound output why don't you just take someone else's?" Kushina asked, "If you had some apparatus to measure sound in the way it looks like you're trying to, this would still be difficult since creating a new character for fuinjutsu is an incredibly involved process. But we have plenty of seals that record sound, why not simply record someone's voice and have it output to a similar level."

I wondered sometimes how Kushina acted so naive most of the time and yet had such a sharp mind, she was right, I merely needed to choose someone to use as a sample. That did present its own problem though - who was I to sound like?

I leaned back with a sigh, "I should have just left this up to the real fuinjutsu master." I signed with a laugh, "Would you like some tea."

* * *

It was approaching evening when I received a polite knock at the door, I got up from where I had been talking with Kushina to answer it and found myself face to face with a masked anbu.

"Chunin exam participants are to report to the Hokage." the Anbu said, I nodded accepting his message and he quickly disappeared.

I turned back to Kushina, "I'm going to have to go Kushina, hopefully I'll be back later with good news." She nodded in response and I picked up my new acquisitions from the blacksmith and set off for the Hokage tower.

On my way Kakashi, jumping over the rooftops Kakashi sprinted by leaving a faint smell of ozone, he slowed down as I caught up, "What's the rush Kakashi, think they'll start without us?" I joked.

Kakashi laughed, "I just like to arrive on time."

The tower itself seemed fairly busy with a few faces I didn't recognise hanging around, when we got to the room outside the Hokage's office we found most of the participants in the exam waiting around edgily though I did notice some were missing.

"Where do you think Ibiki's teammate is?" I asked Kakashi.

Ibiki must have seen my signing across the room though and responded, "He's already inside, seems like they're calling us in one by one."

I nodded gratefully to him, it could be some time before they got around to us then, Kakashi and I took a seat next to Hayate to whom I slid the wooden box I was carrying.

Hayate glanced at me in surprise before sliding the lid back to expose the hilt of the blade among the wooden shavings.

"I figured you needed a replacement for your old sword." I told him, "and I did feel a little guilty about destroying it."

Hayate shook his head as he pulled the blade part way from the sheaf, gazing at the blade carefully, eventually he slid it back and slid the lid back on, "You didn't need to do this Ko… but it's perfect."

"I was a little worried, I tried to get to be as close to the weight of your old blade as possible..." I began to explain.

He held up a hand to stop my babbling, "It's perfect Ko." He repeated

* * *

Ibiki's teammate left without a promotion, Ibiki left wearing a flack jacket and being led by the same Yamanaka that had read my mind. Hayate went in after them and emerged with his own flack jacket before Kakashi and I were called in.

"Ah Kakashi, Ko," The Hokage greeted, nodding to each of us in turn, "A moment, we are just awaiting the arrival of -" The Hokage was cut off as Minato appeared in a flash of light, "Minato." he finished.

"You sent for me Hokage?" Minato enquired before seeing Kakashi and I behind him.

"Yes Minato, this is a somewhat unusual case so I wanted to brief your team as a whole. I have read the report of what happened in the chunin exams, added to that what I witnessed myself from the Kage box and we have a few points to go through in this meeting." The Hokage began.

"To begin with Ko, this is yours, as of this moment you are to be promoted to Chunin and I will add it is very well deserved, I look forward to watching your career in the future." The Hokage slid a flak jacket forward on the table which I donned immediately finding it actually comfortably held my newly purchased staff, "Now onto less pleasant news, after discussing your actions in the tournament with your Jonin sensei and my advisors Kakashi I can not offer you a promotion. I also cannot in good conscience allow this team to continue together as it stands." Looking at Kakashi it looked like he had steeled himself for this moment but I could still see the frustration in his eyes.

"Having said that," the Hokage continued, "The next batch of graduates will not be for 4 months and there are no other partial teams at the moment. So my advisors and I have decided that for the moment you will stay together until they do graduate. In the meantime, and this is the final part of this briefing, there is a mission I have for you. Originally this mission was for Minato and a few other Shinobi I felt were suited for the mission but Minato feels you are both capable of this mission and has asked if you could be part of the team so I will trust in his judgement. You will be joined by Shibi of the Aburame clan, your mission will be to investigate and if necessary destroy a weapons factory we have received intel about located within Suna."

I raised my eyebrows, this was no C rank.

"Within Suna Hokage? Did we not just sign a treaty with them?" I asked.

The Hokage nodded, "We did indeed, this particular city is not affiliated with the rest of Suna and we know very little about it other than that it appears to be amassing a great deal of weaponry." The Hokage took a puff of his pipe as he considered where to begin for a moment, "Tell me, have you ever heard of the city of Loran…"

* * *

The briefing lasted some time and left me somewhat cautious of the mission itself. We were told we were to leave in two days giving us enough time to rest from our return from Suna and time to prepare equipment for the mission. Minato seemed to sense how overwrought we were and swung both his arms around our shoulders.

"Well having my first student get promoted to the rank of Chunin is cause enough for celebration in my book, let's head out, I know a place." Minato said, guiding us down the street.

The place he knew as it turned out seemed to be a regular haunt for the shinobi population of the village as there was hardly a patron there that didn't wear a headband, we found when we got there that Minato was not entirely unprepared for the occasion.

"Over here Minato." Jiraiaya called from across the bar, he was surrounded by Kushina, Tsunade, Sakumo, Shikaku, Yoshino, even Orichimaru and the Hokage who had beaten us there from his office. The bar was packed to the rafters but it seemed like we had gotten our own space with a booth at one end of the bar.

Minato waved as Kakashi and I felt a little under pressure being among so many of the village's best, "Sorry we are late," He apologised, "Got held up with a briefing."

Jiraiaya nodded, easily accepting our excuse.

Shikaku slapped my shoulder as I approached the table, "congratulations on the promotion Ko."

I smiled back saying, "I don't think I would have gotten past my first fight without your training."

"This is no time for talk," Tsunade announced, pushing a round of drinks towards us, "Now is the time to celebrate." She finished as we picked up our drinks.

The Hokage stepped forward then raising his glass, "To Keiko, our new Chunin!" He announced with a laugh. I did a double glance at the hokage as I raised my glass to my lips, we had only walked to the bar but it couldn't have taken more than 20 minutes, even so the hokage already had a red flush to his face, he must have used shunshin to get here the moment we left the office.

My drink looked like water and after a taste for a moment I thought it was but then I was hit by a fruity punch and it stung the back of my throat as it went down, I gagged a little at the unexpected sting but Kakashi beside me wretched as everyone laughed.

"You gave us alcohol?" I asked, looking to Tsunade.

"What's the matter kid, don't think you can take a few drinks?" She jibed with a sharp smile.

"No, no," I shook my head, "I just thought there was a law against serving minors."

"Kukuku, so there is, that law however is waived in the case of ranked shinobi." Orochimaru said, he was hemmed into the booth with Jiraiya and tsunade boxing him in.

"Hang on Orochimaru, it sounded for a moment there like the brat said he could take some drinks." Tsunade cut in

"Now Tsunade, it probably isn't fair to bring Ko into a drinking contest." Sakumo said

'A drinking contest?' I thought, 'I've only just arrived, I've only just found out I can drink. This is escalating pretty quickly'

"Yeah Tsunade, that wouldn't be fair," said Jiraiya.

'Well at least reason is asserting itself' I thought.

"Not unless we can all join in." Jiraiya finished.

God help us all.

* * *

"You can drink I'll give yer that." Tsunade said, slurring her words.

Kakashi had to be carted home hours ago by Sakumo, apparently he didn't take at all well to alcohol. The Hokage had excused himself muttering something about divine retribution from Biwako if he didn't return by midnight, Kushina had gone with him since she was the only person who had abstained from drinking and was concerned about the old Hokage making it home. Jiraiaya had moments ago finally succumbed and was carried away by Orochimaru who had some kind of technique for flushing the 'poison' as he called it from his body. Shikaku and Yoshino left before even Kakashi, both supporting each other and surprisingly singing songs on their way.

Which left me sitting across from an incredibly inebriated Tsunade, I had somehow kept up for reasons I attributed to my unusual biology. I assumed that my rapidly growing body also processed whatever I drank incredibly quickly. Even then though when I had risen for a bathroom break earlier I had slumped back down into my seat, somehow all of the effects of the alcohol had focussed themselves below the waist leaving me unable to walk, I had tried to play it off as a stretch but I could see I was fooling no one and Tsunade quickly pushed another drink towards me like a shark smelling blood.

Minato had told me he was taking a nap about half an hour ago and he slept softly at my side in the booth his head in his folded arms, I was surprised he had stayed up so long, it was now around 3am so almost all of the customers had left excepting a few that slept in corners, the barman focussed himself on some work better known to himself at the far end of the bar and returned only to refill our bottle of sake.

Luckily with it now being so quiet I no longer needed to sign and could make do with whispering, it was a good thing too since at this point the sake had discombobulated what finer motor control skills I had had of my hands, I was still surprised I could still lift my glass without spillage.

"I think you are about at the end of your rope." I said grinning, what tsunade hadn't noticed was that there were brief moments I saw her eyes glaze over, she was fighting an alcohol induced stupor all the time and over the last 15 or so minutes those moments had become more extended and regular, I knew it wouldn't be long before she gave in. Or at least I hoped so or I may need to visit the hospital tomorrow to have the alcohol pumped from my body.

"Hah, you've never even seen a rope." Tsunade responded intelligently, her head wobbled dangerously as she lowered her latest drink.

I hiccuped and my grin slipped as the room wobbled around me, "We'll see about that." I poured us both another drink, lifting mine to my lips.

As I placed my glass back down on the table I noticed Tsunade had not lifted her glass. Her eyes were glazed over, I leaned over the table and waved my hand in front of her eyes but she didn't respond except for her head to fall back into the cushion of the chair. She began snoring a short moment later.

"And then there was one." I whispered to myself, as I poured myself another drink. I had begun to see over the course of the evening that drinking actually made me rather morose. For much of the remainder of the evening I had forced a grin to stay on my face, I didn't like to bring the atmosphere down for a celebration, but I doubt it reached my eyes. As I sat there now I felt myself overcome with an overwhelming amount of ennui as my thoughts went unwillingly to my last life. I had tried to put such thoughts behind me, it was a life reborn - how many were given the opportunity. Still though the family I could remember that I left behind was brought unwillingly to mind and some part of me wondered how they were doing now, what they were doing now.

I poured myself another drink as I looked other to Minato who was still breathing the easy sighs of sleep, "What would you think Minato," I whispered, "If I were to tell you I had a life before, that I died and was reincarnated in this world. What if I told you that was where all my taijutsu knowledge came from. Maybe I should have told you long ago." I scoffed to myself, "Right. Who would believe that?"

After finishing the bottle of alcohol that remained I sat for around half an hour before I felt comfortable to stand. Then I placed Minato over one shoulder and Tsunade over another, hopefully neither would remember how I carried them from the bar.

From there I headed to the hospital. I had no idea where Tsunade lived but she did say it sometimes felt like the hospital was her second home. I wearily placed her in a hospital bed in her own clinic ward. Turning around I found a child with black hair, she placed a finger over her lips as she held up a blanket to which I nodded my thanks before placing it over Tsunade.

Minato I brought back to his house and was surprised to find a sleepy looking Kushina opening the door, "I'll take it from here." She whispered as I passed Minato to her.

I wonder when Kushina had moved into Minato's house, as far as I knew still lived on the other side of my house, a next door neighbour but one to where Minato lived. Perhaps at some point over the course of the chunin exams.

It was a good thing the Hokage had given us 2 days until the mission because it took me the entirety of the following day to recover, Kakashi didn't show up for our early morning training either.

* * *

Soon enough it was time to meet up at the gate, we were to wear masks during the mission, it would not do for Suna to find that the village it had just formed a treaty with had been sending shinobi into its borders on business. Then there was the city itself, we really did know very little about it, it had apparently been around for many years and was ruled by a queen who built the city on a leyline that provided chakra for the city. There though the information ran dry. The information seemed to suggest that the weapons were not being manufactured by the queen herself so Minato suggested we should try and protect the queen from the fallout wherever possible, souring relations with a sovereign in our first excursion into their realm was to be avoided.

With the urgency and relative secrecy of the mission we had agreed that we would leave as soon as possible that day so Kakashi, Minato, Shibi and I had met up at the front gate almost an hour before sunrise ready to travel through the day and night, it had been decided that if we kept up a good pace we could enter Suna during the night time and avoid being sighted. Minato already seemed well acquainted with Shibi but he introduced himself to us, I got the impression that he was a man of few words, it didn't help that the masks we had been given were annoying to talk in. Kakashi had his in the fashion of a wolf, Minato of a fox, Shibi in the style of a cat and I had the mask of an owl.

Running through the day was business as usual but during the night it was a novel experience though somewhat tiring considering, by the time we stopped with the sunrise, we had been awake for 24 hours.

The journey otherwise passed uneventfully, Shibi navigated, Minato led and Kakashi and I watched for any attacks from behind which happily never came.

It wasn't until we were travelling across the lands of Suna, traversing a large sunbaked mesa that we first saw Loran.

* * *

AN: Well I'm still sick. but trapped in a bed with nothing to do but lay about I may as well get something done. I feel like I got through a lot in this chapter though it isn't particularly long, hopefully you enjoy it. I'll see if I can't write another chapter whilst I still have this illness as my gaoler. Please review and I'll see you in the next chapter.


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